


Septem Annorum

by Werepirechick



Series: Wands in hand. [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Human, Asexuality, Asexuality Spectrum, Boarding School, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Concerned Sibling Brigade, Dark Magic, Drama & Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Growing Up, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Hurt/Comfort, Light Magic, Magical Shenanigans, Multiracial Characters, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Racism, Sibling Brigade, Siblings, donnie needs to not lmao, gotta love wizard racists, here and there, i'll keep updating anyways, its stress relief for me, kids being kids, no one reads this but fuckit, you fuck with one you fuck with them all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2018-09-20 22:01:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 36
Words: 42,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9517952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Werepirechick/pseuds/Werepirechick
Summary: Seven years is a long time for six kids to get into trouble.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so someone left a super enthusiastic comment on my first fic for this AU, and then I got dragged back into it because honestly? I'd been considering writing more for it ever since I wrote the damn thing.
> 
> Hence this.
> 
> First chapter here is set a few weeks into Mikey's first year at school. Check the last fic for more details on basically everything.

 

 

Mikey pushed his foot against the ancient stone, grunting as he shoved with all his eleven year old might.

A long, gritty dragging sound later, and the ages old secret door popped open- swinging out on its invisible hinges and releasing a cloud of tunnel dust with it.

Mikey lost his footing when it did, and slid out the slanted tunnel with a yelp. Thankfully, the house elves of the Ravenclaw towers hadn’t done laundry yet that day, and Mikey landed with a soft _"pomf!”_ on someone’s pile of dirty sheets.

Face down.

_Eugh._

Mikey hurriedly sat up, wiping his mouth to get rid of the taste of dusty sheets. The room was empty, like he thought it would be, so he sat for a moment on the dirty laundry.

Now which bed was his brother’s again…?

It only took a moment to find the one covered in books and discarded robes. Donnie’s room looked similar at home, but with even more beakers of potions on the side tables. Maybe a few dozen more books.

Mikey stood up, dusting off his very dirty robes, and reached back up into the passage he’d fallen from. His fingers scrabbled for a moment on the stone, and then found the end of his bag. Mikey tugged it down, catching it in his arms.

To business then.

He kicked his way out of the laundry pile, headed straight for his brother’s bed. Donnie was in class, same as practically every other student, so he wouldn’t be back for hours.

Mikey was technically supposed to be in class too, but he had more important things to do than school work.

Besides, sneaking through his network of secret passages was _way_ more fun than listening to Magical History.

Mikey opened Donnie’s trunk, and started shuffling through the items inside. Book, book, collection of quills, more books, _ooh-_ a definitely illegal dark magic looking thing, more books-

Mikey let out a quiet “ _ah ha!”_ , and pulled out what he’d been looking for.

A huge tome looking book, heavy enough it made his arms droop. Wrapped in thick brown twine, and looking like it was at least a hundred years old. It was definitely something Donnie would own.

Of course, what was inside wasn’t _quite_ what one would expect to find in a book.

Mikey opened it, the enchanted binding around it unwinding at his touch, and grinned at the contents.

Packaged sweets, smuggled in under their father’s watchful eye. All for the taking.

Technically, Mikey wasn’t supposed to take from Donnie’s stash without asking. Technically, he shouldn’t have been able to get into the Ravenclaw quarters at all. Technically, Mikey didn’t care about any of that.

And besides, he’d brought stuff to replace the coveted sweets. Donnie needed more variety anyways.

Turned out, Herbology was good for something after all!

Mikey put down the still opened tome of candy, and opened his bag instead. To make room, you see.

One quick empty and refilling of his bag later, and Mikey slunk back into the stone entrance, shutting it behind him with another grating grind.

 

 

 

Donnie stared at the mess on his bed.

He’d come to get his next class’ work books. Not deal with _this._

“Why are there squash and cucumbers in my bed?” Donnie asked aloud. “And tomatoes too for that matter.”

April- who wasn’t quite supposed to be in his room, but they didn’t care about that rule much- peered around Donnie to look at the vegetables. “Maybe one of the house elves decided to get a sense of humor?”

Donnie pursed his lips, and steepled his fingers. “Yeah, but _why_.”

“Don’t know. They probably think you don’t eat enough greens.”

“None of these are what's typically categorized as 'greens' though.”

April shrugged.

Donnie stared again at his bed.

“Just- _why??”_

 

He didn’t find the half empty tome until later, and couldn’t figure out at all how they’d been pilfered.

He knew who’d done it though, even if Mikey gave him a particularly innocent smile when Donnie glared at him across the dining hall.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> late night conversation between third years.

 

 

“Are we in love?” April asked.

Donnie blinked, and looked up blearily from his work.

April, who was sitting across from him, like she had every day for the past three years, looked as frazzled and sleep deprived as Donnie felt. Though, despite that, she still had a bright and intense light in her eyes. Her curiosity, always burning.

“Um. What?” Donnie asked back.

It was two AM, his brain wasn’t quite functioning outside study mode at the moment. They should’ve been in bed, but between their misadventures with the miniature griffins and the poachers and just so, so many littler things everywhere, neither of them had had any time to study. Donnie’s grade point average had dropped for the first time ever, and it had honestly been a very unpleasant experience.

“Are we-” She gestured between them. “-in love? Irma and our housemates all seem to think so.”

Donnie squeezed his eyes shut, and released his tight grip on his quill to rub underneath his glasses. It was too late for things like this. Or maybe, it was just late enough. “What gave them _that_ idea?”

“Well… we do sort of spend every day together? And I guess I spent last summer at your place too… plus all the sneaking out and studying together and always sitting across from each in the dining hall…”

“Yeah, but Casey and Raph do that too, and Mikey and LH…” Donnie took off his glasses, and set them on the desk they were sharing. His eyes adjusted to the difference in sight quality, and he felt a bit of his migraine ease. “What’s so different about _us_ doing it?”

“Probably because I’m a girl and you’re a boy and yada yada yada,” April droned, making talking gestures with her hands. “Everything the girls talk about these days are boys, or I guess other girls too, and dating them. It’s gross.”

“Sounds gross,” Donnie agreed, wrinkling his nose. “Why do we have to be in love to hang out anyways?”

“Don’t know. Do we have to be in love at all?”

“Sounds distracting,” Donnie said, thinking of how Leo’s attention would wander lately, whenever a pretty girl walked by.

“It really does,” April agreed solemnly.

Donnie hummed for a moment, thinking, and then shrugged to himself. “I like you a lot, and you’re my best friend, so can that just be enough?”

“I like that plan,” April said, nodding along. “Girlfriend stuff sounds like so much work. Hair and makeup and just… everything? Too much work for me.”

“Planning dates sounds like a hassle too,” Donnie said. “I mean, we sort of do that already with trips to Diagon Alley or the Forbidden Forest, but that’s different.”

“That reminds me, I’m running out of those sour candies I like. Want to sneak out to Hogsmeade next Friday?”

“Sounds good to me,” Donnie said, picking up his glasses to resume studying. Their topic of conversation drifted, and April’s sleep-deprived questioning was shuffled to the side.

And then Donnie, and April as well, forgot that particular two AM conversation for another few years.

It became very relevant again then, but Donnie at thirteen didn’t have to worry about that just yet.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> basically, this series will just be random snippets from all over the timeline here. have fun piecing things together as they come!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during Raph and Donnie's first year at Hogwarts.

 

 

Something was following them. Watching them. He hadn’t caught sight of it, or heard anything, but something was definitely there. Right behind them.

Or maybe it was all around them, and Raph was just so confused by the trees and plants and shadows and everything that he couldn't tell where the watching-following feeling was coming from.

Raph ran faster, ducking under the thick foliage as he pushed himself forwards. His robes caught on branches as he ran, but he was moving so quick it didn’t matter.

Casey ran beside him, panting just as hard as Raph was. They’d been running for a while now, but still-

“Where the hell is Donnie?!” Raph gasped, jumping a thick root.

“Don’t know!” Casey replied, nearly losing his footing on the slick forest floor. “ _Jesus dick-_ how’d he get so deep already? We were right on his tail!”

Raph started to reply, but he choked on his words. Grabbing Casey and covering his friend’s mouth, he hauled them both behind a tree.

_“Dude, what-?”_

_“Shh!”_ Raph hissed. “Be quiet!”

There was something up ahead. Something really, really dangerous.

Raph hadn’t caught a good look of it, but every single one of his self-preservation instincts freaked out just from that short glance.

Long and sinuous, black as night and moving just as silently… it’d been at least twice as tall as him. Raph hadn’t looked it in the eye- thank god- but he knew they _glowed._

Raph, clutching Casey close, waited to move again, in case the creature had heard them. A few painfully long moment later, and he peeked cautiously around the trunk.

Nothing. It was gone.

Raph released Casey, and slid to the ground.

“This was a bad idea,” He whispered, swiping a bit of sweat off his forehead. “Whatever Dee’s gettin’ up to in here, it’s not good.”

“Then what the hell did you stop us for?” Casey hissed quietly, spooked by Raph’s behavior. “You said we had to find out what he’s been sneakin’ off to do.”

“I know I did!” Raph hissed back. He gestured around them. “But this is getting crazy! We’re in the Forbidden Forest, and I’m pretty sure we just barely escaped getting eaten!”

“So?” Casey asked, raising an eyebrow.

“ _So_ , I’d like to not do that again!” Raph exclaimed. “This isn’t fun anymore!”

“Pfft, heck yeah it is! This is probably the most fun I’ve ever had,” Casey said, grinning down at Raph. “We have nothin’ like this in the muggle world, so like hell am I gonna let this slip away from me. C’mon, Raph. We Gryffindor or what?”

“You’re insane, that’s what you are,” Raph grumbled. Casey had exactly zero fear of anything, it seemed. Even deep, dark, extremely old and very magical forests. But… “But yeah. I’m Gryffindor.”

“House of the brave!” Casey exclaimed, pumping his arms. “Now we gonna find out what Donnie’s up to, or are we gonna go runnin’ back to our prefects?”

Raph sighed, though he found himself smiling. “We’re gonna go find my idiot-genius twin brother, and see what he’s up to.”

“That’s the spirit,” Casey said, holding a hand down to raph.

Raph took his friend’s hand, and let himself be pulled off the ground.

“So which way now?” Casey asked, turning in a circle. “I think we’re a little lost here.”

“Uh… yeah, I’m not really sure,” Raph admitted, scratching at his head. He pulled a stray leaf out of his short, tight curls, and flicked it away. “Damn, wish we knew how to do tracking spells. Bet Leo does.”

“Yeah, but your bro isn’t here right now,” Casey said, pulling out his wand and rolling it between his fingers. “Think a quick lumos would help any?”

“Maybe,” Raph said. “Or it’ll draw every magical creature in the area right to us.”

“Oh yeah… yeah let’s _not_ do that,” Casey agreed, lowering his wand.

“How soon till dinner is it? If it gets close to that, Donnie’ll probably wander out on his own again.”

“Uh… dunno. I don’t have a watch anymore, stopped working soon as I stepped on the train.”

Raph groaned. Stupid magical interference. “So what, we backtrack, or keep going, even though we dunno where Donnie went?”

“Err… I don’t know??”

“Let’s flip for it. Heads we go forwards, tails we go back.”

Raph dug a coin out of his pocket, leftover from weeks ago on the train ride. He flipped it into the air. “Call it!”

“Heads!” Casey exclaimed.

Raph caught it, and peered at the result. “Tails.”

Casey made a disappointed sound. Psycho muggle-born.

“C’mon,” Raph said, nudging Casey’s arm. “We can go hang out on the edge of the woods till Dee gets back. Plenty of danger even on the border.”

“I know… but I kinda wanted to see a centaur,” Casey said, sounding wistful.

“Dude. Centaurs kill wizards.”

“Yeah they do, why wouldn’t I want to meet them?”

Raph scoffed. “Muggle-borns. Buncha weirdos.”

Casey punched Raph’s arm, and Raph punched back.

 

 

 

They ended up being caught by the grounds keeper the second they got close to the forest border, and thus didn’t get to corner Donnie when he returned from the forest.

There were detentions for them both, which Raph just _loved_. Soon as he found Donnie, he was going to pay him back for that. Even if he technically had had nothing to do with it.

Donnie wasn’t at dinner though. Which only led to more questions. Questions that weren’t answered for another week.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wonder what Donnie was up to, hm hm hm....
> 
> What a bunch of trouble makers.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some sexuality crisis - ft leo and karai

 

 

Leo had been talking with Karai on the fringes of the Quidditch pitch, about the game between their schools that evening, when a wizard he didn’t know approached them.

He looked about Leo’s age, Asian descent, with white hair and a cheerful smile. He was also wearing Durmstrang Quidditch team robes.

Karai greeted him first, a teasing smile aimed at the younger boy. “Usagi, nice to see you’re already prepared to kick my cousin’s ass tonight.”

“Ah, there’s no intention of that, Karai, I promise,” Usagi replied with a smile of his own. “I’m just there to greet the opposing team before we start. Good sportsmanship is important, after all.”

He turned to Leo, and stuck out his hand. “Usagi Miyamoto, nice to meet you. You’re Leonardo Hamato, correct? I’ve heard a lot about you from your cousin.”

Usagi had very large eyes, so darkly brown they were almost black. They contrasted starkly with his white hair, eye-catchingly so.

“I- um- yes. That’s me,” Leo recovered, taking the other boy’s hand. He felt the strong grip Usagi had, as well as the firm callouses on his palm. His hand felt oddly warm as Usagi released it.

“I look forwards to playing against you tonight,” Usagi said, still smiling at Leo. “I’ve heard your team is quite good this year. I hope you live up to expectations,” He added, a hint of tease creeping into his voice. “I wouldn’t want things to be _too_ uneven.”

Leo’s ears felt weirdly warm, and he tried for a taunting grin at Usagi. “No, we certainly wouldn’t want that. It’d be a shame for Hogwarts to beat you Durmstrang’s so easily.”

Usagi laughed, and Leo’s stomach squirmed strangely. “In all honesty though, I’m actually really looking forwards to this game. Not many other prefectures can match what our school’s teams can dish out, and I won’t lie about loving a challenge. May the best team win, eh Leonardo?”

“May the best team win, Usagi,” Leo agreed. “See you on the pitch.”

“See you on the pitch,” Usagi nodded.

They smiled at one another for a moment longer, then Usagi walked past Leo; heading towards the field and the gathered students there. He patted Leo’s shoulder as he went by, and Leo felt the gesture keenly.

Why was it so stifling to be wearing his Quidditch gear, all of a sudden?

Leo stared after the other student, watching as Usagi’s robes caught the wind. His ears still felt hot, and his hand warm.

“Oh my god,” Karai said, and Leo internally started. He’d forgotten she was there.

“You,” She pointed at him, and he saw the beginning of a shit-eating grin. “Have a crush on that boy.”

“I- wha- I do not!” Leo exclaimed, heat spreading from his ears to his face.

“Holy- you so _do!”_ Karai exclaimed gleefully. “I can’t believe it, my gay little cousin. What will your _brothers_ say?”

Leo felt hot embarrassment well up in his chest, and he shoved Karai. “I do not have a crush! Shut up!”

“You _do_ , oh my _god!”_

“ _Shut UP!”_

“I’m going to tell _everyone!”_ Karai cackled, starting to run towards the pitch below their hill. That’s where their family was, milling around with friends and the attending teachers.

Leo flailed, and ran to catch his cousin. In a fit of desperation, he yelled, _“IF YOU TELL THEM I’LL TELL THEM YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH SHINI!”_

Karai stopped immediately, and slowly turned around with a sharp glare. “You _wouldn’t.”_

“I _would,”_ Leo promised, glaring right back.

Karai stared at him, a dangerous look creeping into her eyes.

Leo started to sweat a bit.

He started to sweat more, as his cousin drew her wand.

“I’m sorry Leo,” She said in a low tone. She raised he wand. “But it looks like I’ll have to silence you.”

Leo gulped. “Karai, wait-”

 _“Death to blood traitors!”_ Karai shouted, charging at him.

Leo shrieked, and turned tail to his furious older cousin.

 

 

 

 

“What on earth are they doing?” Donnie asked, handing a box of popcorn to Raph.

“Who knows,” Raph shrugged, watching their fourteen year old brother be hunted down by their sixteen year old cousin. “Being stupid.”

“Hm, probably,” Donnie agreed, passively watching as their relatives shot spells at each other.

“Should we rescue him?”

Donnie watched as Karai grabbed Leo by the shoulders, and turned his hair bright green. “Do _you_ want to get in the way of our entirely too bloodthirsty cousin and her prey?”

They heard Leo’s screech clear across the field.

“Nope,” Raph said, shoving a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

Donnie bumped fists with his twin, and settled in for the show.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leo is a bisexual disaster, help him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mikey, in all his first year glory, finds a cat.

 

 

“Where did you get that cat?” Leo asked, staring at the mangy thing in Mikey’s arms.

“The castle gave her to me,” Mikey replied blithely, petting his new companion.

“The… castle,” Leo repeated, already feeling a migraine coming on.

The bedraggled cat in Mikey’s arms meowed shrilly, and clambered up his shoulder to wind around his neck. Leo felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up, as the cat’s eyes flashed weirdly in the light.

“Mhm,” Mikey confirmed again, reaching up and scratching the cat’s ears. “She likes ice cream a lot.”

Leo closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples.

Their father wouldn’t be happy about this, once the semester ended.

 

 

 

Mikey had been clambering through his passageways, like he always did ever since finding them- when he noticed the pathway had changed.

“Huh. You didn’t look like that earlier,” He said to the now left ways path. He glanced down at his bowl of ice cream, straight from the kitchen and its house elves there, and figured he had enough time to wander a bit. Wizard ice cream melted slower than muggle ice cream, something he’d figured out with Donnie years ago.

Maybe he should have been bothered that the castle did this to him sometimes, but Mikey didn’t mind much. The castle was old, older than he’d ever get to be. Something that old didn’t always follow normal rules. Like staying in the lines you’d been built on.

Usually though, the castle would do this, and he’d find an even faster way to his destination, or something way more interesting than what he’d been doing.

Mikey had only been at his new school for a few weeks, but he figured he and the castle were friends already. He trusted its judgement.

Raph had given him a weird look when he mentioned that offhand, but Mikey didn’t mind. Adventures without his brothers were okay sometimes, especially with the Hogwarts castle.

Mikey trekked along the new pathway, magically created inside the walls of the castle and against pretty much all physics. Donnie would probably get really obsessed with that fact, if Mikey ever told him.

Hm. Not yet. It was his secret still.

Mikey stuck a bite of ice cream into his mouth, and came to a stop at a sudden divide in the walkway.

“Huh,” He mumbled. “Never did that before.”

Left or right.

Mikey bobbed his head side to side, trying to figure out which way he felt like going.

He heard a weird scratching sound coming from the right passageway. Something dragging along the stone walls, again and again and again.

Well, looked like he was going right.

Mikey walked along the small passageway, thankful he was still so tiny compared to his brothers. The walls got tighter as he did, and the sound of scratching got closer.

There was a slight chance the sound could turn out to be a rogue creature, hiding somewhere in the castle walls. It’d happened before apparently, magical species trying to make a home inside the castle without permission.

Mikey figured though, that his luck had lasted him this long, so… why not?

The passageway made a sharp turn up ahead, and as he went around it-

-he came upon a small cubby.

It was just big enough for someone to sit in alone, and had a tiny bench covered in dust and webs. Candles melted down to their stubs surrounded it, and there was an abandoned robe shoved into the corner.

There was also a cat. It had been the source of the sound, dragging its claws down the walls to trim them. It stopped as Mikey appeared from around the corner, and let out a long meow.

“Oh, hey little guy,” Mikey said, bending down. “Are you lost?”

The cat meowed again, and sashayed out from behind the bench. Mikey watched it sidle up to him, and duck its head right into his ice cream bowl.

He grinned widely, and giggled as the cat licked hungrily at his ice cream.

“I guess not! I would’ve said ‘have some of mine’, but I think you figured that out already.”

The cat let out a warbling meow, and took another chunk out of the ice cream.

“You wanna come back with me? My bed’s plenty big enough for the both of us, if you wanna.”

The kitty looked up at him, and meowed long and shrilly.

“Ha ha, I’ll take that as a yes.”

 

 

 

“And that’s why she’s now my kitty,” Mikey said, petting the cat still.

Leo stared at his younger brother, trying to figure out where Mikey’s thought process was going at the moment. “…Mikey you didn’t explain anything. You just said the castle gave her to you and then dazed off for a solid minute. Mikey, tell me where she came from. Mikey. Mikey. _Mikey-_ hey don’t walk away when I’m talking to you- _MIKEY!”_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dad obvs isn't super impressed Mikey comes home with yet another mouth to feed- adding to Raph dragging Casey home for most of the summers, and Donnie begging and pleading that April stay over, and Karai waltzing in and out whenever she feels like- but he lets his son keep the cat.
> 
> They're not entirely sure that they could get rid of it anyways. There's something weird about IC kitty....


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mikey's part in things, during the great griffin crisis of his third year.

 

 

Practicing duel spells, learning fighting techniques, and playing at being a warrior, was a lot more fun when it wasn’t real.

Mikey, staring down the two wands of two men, two men who want to hurt his brothers and take the creatures they’d made together, felt a lot less like a warrior, and instead like a kid. A kid with knobby elbows and knees, too big cloaks and shoes, and no idea what he was doing.

Mikey’s grip on his tightened, and he tried to steady his breathing.

 _Remember what Karai said,_ he thought inside his racing mind. _Remember what she told you to do._

“Give us the chicks,” One of the men growled, leveling his wand with Mikey’s eyes. “Or this’ll get ugly real quick.”

 _Don’t give them an edge, make them afraid of_ you _, and don’t blink, no matter what._

Karai had always been terrifying to Mikey, when she wasn’t being his super amazing cousin. She’d ranked in the top scores for dueling out of an _entire country’s worth of teen wizards-_ and her advice hadn’t failed him yet, so.

Mikey smiled, and laughed.

“Nah, I think we’ll keep ‘em,” Mikey said, keeping his voice light and steady despite the pounding fear in his skull. “I think Raph got attached to the whole clutch already.”

“This isn’t a game, kid,” The second man said, sneering in a way that made Mikey want his brothers. “This is real life. We’re taking those chicks whether you cooperate or not, and if you don’t move now…” The tip of his wand started glowing. “We’ll have to move you ourselves.”

Semi-hysterical laughter bubbled out of Mikey, and he shook his head so hard his coils bounced. “Nope! My bros told me to keep watch till they could get help, and I’m not letting them down.”

“Bad move, kid,” The first man said in a low voice, though Mikey could see it. The crack in _his_ defenses, not Mikey’s.

Mikey wasn’t moving. He was still smiling and laughing, even with two wands aimed right at his head. He was thirteen and should have been terrified of them. Which he was, but he was laughing instead of showing it.

He was making them nervous.

_Good._

Mikey’s favorite class was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and it wasn’t that much of a boast to say it was his best as well.

Mikey saw the man’s lips move before sound came out, saw the flick his hand was going to make, and he _moved._

Most wizards stood still while they casted spells. Mikey didn’t think he _could_ stand still. Ever.

He’d always been the fastest out of his siblings. Even Karai. Even when they were all much younger, when _he_ was much younger, he’d always been fastest.

Mikey was halfway out of his head with panic, but you could only go so far into one feeling before you went numb.

So he did what he did best.

He _moved,_ and he _laughed,_ and he _improvised._

Light blazed past him, and Mikey dodged faster than the men could blink.

He laughed, because hysteria was _great_ like that- and sent a spell at them in response as he ran along their flanks.

Then he blocked their returning spells, just like he’d been taught to. By both his school and his family.

His brothers were depending on him. He wasn’t going to let them down.

He also probably wouldn’t make it out of this alive if he didn’t put up a fight, so.

Mikey fought, and while he didn’t _win_ per say, he certainly didn’t lose.

Mikey forgot to actually say his spells, somewhere in the maddeningly long and short seconds the battle lasted. He blanked out- he was pretty good at that honestly- and just _went for it._

He wanted them to be pushed back. The men were pushed back.

He wanted their spells to be blocked. He blocked them.

He wanted to blind them, and give himself the advantage. A white piercing light flew out of his wand, and filled the whole area with blinding light. He jumped in close, and attacked with himself instead of his wand.

Mikey kicked one in the stomach, and the other in his crotch.

Mikey got punched in the chest, and he tumbled away, landing hard on his side.

He lost his wand, lost his footing.

He scrambled back up and away before they could shoot him with their wands.

Somewhere around then, he recovered his wand from the ground, and thought _cut_ at the men, and flicked his wrist.

He missed, but the ground between them split with a long gash. It followed the direction Mikey had flicked his wrist.

Mikey didn’t get another chance to try that again- he probably wouldn’t have missed the next time- because he got blown backwards by a pulse of energy.

He hit the ground, lost his wand, and blacked out.

By the time he opened his eyes again, there were men and women in cloaks standing between his attackers and him. There was a lot of shouting, but it seemed like the kind of shouting that meant things were okay now. The new adults were probably the good ones.

Leo and Donnie and Raph were clustered around him, all talking at once. Kneeling on the ground with their cloaks in the mud, and a lot of worry in their expressions.

Mikey woozily saw that Spike, Raph’s favorite griffin chick, was still on his shoulder. They hadn't been found, Mikey had stalled the bad guys long enough.

Cool. They were all okay. He’d done his job.

Mikey smiled.

_“I did it.”_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my version of Mikey can do wordless magic, and later on, wandless magic too. 
> 
> his brothers, friends, and cousin/her wife are all horrendously jealous.
> 
> also: Mikey was obvs fine, he just hit his head and gave himself a goose egg back there. that was basically the worst extent his injuries had.
> 
> also obvs: they all got grounded for the whole summer. (it was so worth it)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Donnie's first day, first year, and first experience with Things He Should Not Know.

 

 

The moment Donnie found the book, he knew it was different.

Late at night, long after everyone had already gone to sleep, Donnie had skulked his way down to the library. All those books. All those wonderful, amazing _books._ All for the taking.

Except.

Apparently, first years weren’t allowed to handle majority of the library books. _Apparently._

Donnie had felt his hair elastic snap, like it always did when he got upset, and his hair turn into an embarrassing poof. He’d very barely kept himself from cussing at the prefect leading them on a tour, and tried to keep his fritzing magic to himself.

It only half worked, and he got some side looks from his new housemates.

He hadn’t had Raph or Leo or even Mikey to calm him down, so Donnie had stewed and sparked all the way through his classes, his meal times, and up till bed. Because it wasn’t _fair._ This was meant to be the place he’d finally be allowed to actually _learn things. Real_ magic, _real_ magical sciences. Not… kid stuff.

Donnie was smarter than that, he _knew he was._ No one would _recognize that_ _though._

April had thought he was smart, she’d thought his hair puffing up was funny and entertaining. He liked April a lot already. Shame they couldn’t share dorm rooms, because gender and all that.

So after everyone had fallen asleep, and Donnie’s frustrations had hit a peaking point, he got out of bed.

If the teachers and older kids wouldn’t teach him what he wanted, _then he’d do it himself._

Donnie had done this lots of times before. Teacher and adults telling him to wait until he was older, and then Donnie going behind their backs to learn what he wanted anyways.

Sometimes he had his brothers to help him, but this time Donnie was on his own. Raph was busy with his new house, and Leo would just refuse.

Donnie cloaked himself in one of the first spells he’d ever learned- a hiding spell, courtesy of his older cousin who better understood him than most people- and slunk through the halls of his new school.

He’d been there for only a day, and he was already breaking the rules. Leo would probably have a fit if he knew.

Donnie slipped into the library, avoiding detection the whole way. Stepping into the wide room felt like coming home, he knew what he was doing when he was somewhere like this. He felt confident he could do anything.

Donnie wandered the parts of the library he’d been warned from, picking a choosing a couple books as he went. Some light reading to keep him through the week, and then he’d bring them all back again. They settled heavily in his satchel, and Donnie bore the weight on his skinny shoulders happily.

Then he came to section, closed off from the rest of the library.

His hair, finally settled down from the dusty must of the books, poofed back up.

Oh. These books. _These books._

They were what he was looking for, almost definitely.

His fingers skimmed the spines of the books, feeling the age and cracks in each one. They were older than him by decades, full of mysteries and wonders his school wanted to keep from him.

Forbidden this, forbidden that. There were too many forbidden things in his school.

Donnie wanted to know them all. Intrinsically, he wanted to know every bit of them. He wanted to know them until he understood everything.

Things crawled on the shelves, and the shadows warped oddly in the candle light Donnie carried with him. Donnie thought he heard some of them whispering, and that only made him smile.

The best things, the most interesting things, always were strange. Normal books were great, but old, magical ones were so, so much better.

Donnie stopped in front of one in particular, finger pausing right over the spine. Hovering, not quite touching.

Donnie couldn’t look away from the book. It pulled his eyes to it in the dim light, and wouldn’t let them drift again.

A moment, and then he pulled it from the shelf.

It wasn’t as big as some on the shelves, and wasn’t exactly small either. It was heavy in Donnie’s hand, but not so that it hurt to hold with one arm.

Donnie slowly set his candle on an abandoned library cart beside him, and held the book with two hands.

Something about it, it was making it stand out.

It felt like it’d been waiting for him.

Donnie opened the book, slowly pulling it apart to bear its contents.

All at once, the world rushed around him, and Donnie _knew._

This book, it was a tie to something, something amazing and grand and bigger than Donnie would ever be. Something old and powerful and _ancient._ Something that had been waiting a very, very long time.

It was calling him. Begging him. Free it, free it so it could spread and run and be _alive_ again. To soar and inspire and expand to fill everything.

It had been waiting for someone. Someone who could do the job the Others hadn’t. Someone who could bring it back into the world and let it rise gleeful and victorious once more.

It needed him. It valued him. It recognized Donnie’s mind and intelligence and drive.

It knew him, and in that instant, Donnie knew _It._

Then-

Donnie blinked, and felt like he’d forgotten something.

He looked again at the old book in his hands.

It felt warm and comforting.

The words inside didn’t make sense- until they did. The glyphs rearranged themselves, and suddenly Donnie could read them.

 _“…wow,”_ Donnie said, breathless for some reason and feeling very light headed.

He traced a finger along the frayed edges of the pages, and felt sort of dreamy, holding the book like he was.

He couldn’t wait to read everything inside it. He felt like it was the most important book he’d ever come across.

Donnie also suddenly felt extremely tired. Like he’d been running all day, and finally stopped.

Donnie sighed, and closed the book. That was enough of a haul for now. He could just come back later when he wanted more.

He picked up his candle, and slipped away from the restricted section of the library.

He blew it out as he neared the doors, and set the candle on a shelf that no one would question it being on.

He kept the Book out of his satchel, clutched tightly to his chest.

It whispered to him, but he didn’t notice.

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leo, right from the start, was not a big fan of the griffin crisis. at all.

 

 

Leo stared in horror at the mess his brothers had created.

Donnie, complete with his black goggles and frizzy hair, smiled widely at Leo. He didn’t seem like he felt any guilt at all.

Raph on the other hand, was too busy cooing over the dozen miniature griffins clambering all over him to even glance at Leo.

In the abandoned dungeon/classroom, there were feathers and suspicious looking spills and what looked like blood splatters all over the floor. There were multiple cauldrons set on the tables, some still bubbling away. Leo didn’t even want to know what was in the vials scattered across those same tables.

Leo put his hands on his head, and took a step back from his brothers. “Oh my god. I can’t believe you did this.”

Donnie cackled, hands on his hips. “Me neither! I was fairly certain someone was going to die for a minute there. That one mixture did _not_ react how I expected it to.”

_“Oh my god.”_

Raph interrupted Leo’s despair with a startled giggle, caused by a particularly adventurous griffin chick making its way onto his head.

“And _you,”_ Leo said accusingly, pointing at his usually surly little brother. Curse Raph’s affection for small animals. “You’re supposed to keep him-” He pointed at Donnie. “-from doing stupid and probably illegal magic! Unsupervised at that!”

Raph blinked at him owlishly. He looked like he was still riding the sort of high he always got around small creatures. Raph lifted a handful of tiny puffball chicks at Leo, eyes wide. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself. He tempted me, Leo. He _tempted me._ ”

Donnie cackled loudly again, which startled the chicks into sloppy flight, and sent Raph scrambling to catch them all again. The sudden motion sent bunches of feathers into the air, and Leo saw one or more of the chicks leave droppings on the floor in their panic.

Leo took a deep breath, and tried to center himself like his father and Sensei had taught him.

“Donnie, Raph,” He said slowly. “Do you have any plan for what we’re supposed to _do with them_ , now that you’ve created them?”

Donnie’s cackling dried up, and he put a hand on his chin. He opened his mouth, and then closed it. He looked perplexed. “You know, I hadn’t actually thought that far yet. I wasn’t sure if I’d even make this far to begin with.”

“Me neither,” Raph said unhelpfully, cradling seven of the palm sized chicks and letting the other five fly over to roost on Donnie. Three latched into Donnie’s afro, and sent Leo’s genius brother swearing.

Leo put his head in his hands, and sighed deeply.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hogwarts should tighten up their security. there's way too many empty classrooms for kids to get into and cause chaos in.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> karai and shini are sixteen in this. idk what the grade levels are like in durmstrang, so whatever. ages instead.

 

 

Karai had never had so many emotions whirl through her all at once- despite having spent majority her life with four _very_ infuriating cousins- and she vaguely thought it might be what one could call ‘whiplash’.

Exchange students. It was always exchange students, no matter what romance novel you picked up. No matter what quality it was or country it hailed from, it was always _exchange students._

Karai stared up at the much taller, months older, very muscular girl, and questioned why she hadn’t convinced Shini to transfer, rather than help receive transfers.

Wait, now she remembered. To prevent something like this from happening, even if that prevention tactic had originally been subconscious.

“Hello,” The older girl said smoothly, extending her hand. Her large earrings reflected the candle lights of the dining hall, flashing silver. She smiled toothily at Karai and Shini both. “My name is Y'Gythgba. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’ve been looking forwards to this exchange program all semester.”

Y’Gythgba’s dark skin contrasted starkly with her silver and teal head wrap, and made the silver of her bracelets- _gauntlets more like_ \- and earrings stand out even more so. Her yellow eyes glittered in the light, and her wide smile was inviting.

Karai didn’t even have to glance at Shini to know her best friend was blushing.

Y'Gythgba tilted her hand, still waiting for Karai or Shini to take her hand. “And what might I call you two?”

Shini shook off her quiet awe, and took the opportunity then to slide over and take Y’Gythgba’s hand. The half veela smiled up at their new classmate, and fluttered her long lashes. “You could call me anything you wanted, but I do have a preference for my nickname. Shinigami, Shini for short. It is a _great_ _pleasure_ to meet you as well, Y’Gythgba. I assure you, your stay here will be just as wonderful as you’d imagined. I’ll personally see to it.”

Karai’s hands twitched into claw like stiffness, and she bristled internally. Her ears burned, hidden carefully by her bangs, and she felt bitter jealousy climb up her throat.

It took a lot of restraint not to snatch her friend’s hand away from their new transfer student, and put herself bodily between the two.

Shini was still making dark eyes at Y’Gythgba. Alternatively, Y’Gythgba was still smiling widely at Shini.

For once, Karai thanked the stars and moon that she wasn’t blood related to her cousins. Otherwise, her hair would’ve been a poof of sheer _anger_.

_Not fair. Not fair at all._

Y’Gythgba released Shini’s hand, and reached out to grasp Karai’s. “And your name is…?”

Karai schooled her expression, and smiled best she could. She took Y’Gythgba’s hand, and tried not to get into a strength competition with the no doubt stronger girl.

“Karai,” Karai replied, voice only slightly strained. “Oroku Karai. It’s lovely to meet you, Y’Gythgba. I’m sure you’ll… _love_  staying at our school.”

Y’Gythgba seemed slightly confused by Karai’s tone, and Karai let go of her hand before the other girl could question further.

Later, or rather as soon as she had a moment alone, Karai dug out her quill and ink and papers, and wrote a hasty letter.

She addressed it to Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey. And then April too, just to be safe.

She only wrote one scrawling sentence on the parchment.

_Guys, help, how do you win back a girl you weren’t even dating???_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> love is the air. things are about to get hairy very quickly for this part of the story.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *stealthily avoids having to work on other fics by working on this one*
> 
> set in mikey's first year, cue some dye troubles and then something deeper.

 

 

When Leo heard snickering start, distantly but loudly, further down the bench from him at the breakfast table- he didn’t think much of it. But, the snickering turned into muffled laughter, and it spread closer and closer to him as it did.

He glanced up from his serving of eggs and toast, and almost choked on the mouthful he had.

Mikey was marching towards him, face screwed up in the way he always had it when he was trying to repress emotions. His hair was a tangled mess, and his uniform was only half on.

And he was mostly orange.

Mikey’s usually light brown skin was blotted over by patches of neon orange, all over his exposed limbs and face. And his hair resembled that closely; the dark curls turned into a swirl of orange and black. It looked a bit like the muggle treat Casey had introduced them to last summer, called ‘Tiger Ice-cream’, despite not having any actual tiger in it.

Leo coughed, thumping his chest, and tried to regain composure as his littlest brother approached him. “M-Mikey! Hey, uh, what’s with the new look?”

Mikey’s expression screwed up worse, and he balled his fists in his dishevelled robes.

“My dye wore off,” He said tightly.

Leo nodded slowly, because that was true; Mikey’s magical dye job had finally worn off last night during their late night snack. In Leo’s room. After curfew. Because Mikey _somehow_ could get in and out of the Hufflepuff house without being seen or stopped.

“And?” Leo prompted gently, ignoring the snickers from his table.

“And…” Mikey’s orange mottled cheeks turned a darker orange, obscuring his freckles. “I tried to fix it myself.”

The attempt obviously hadn’t gone how Mikey had wanted it to.

Leo heard one of his housemates choke on his food, and he sighed. “Mikey, I’ve got to say… all I can think here is that you went from a cocoa puff to a cheese puff.”

Immediately, the snickering turned into shocked laughter, and Leo heard at least two people choke on their food.

 _“Leo!”_ Mikey exclaimed, his expression crumpling. He stomped his foot, and looked about as angry as an eleven year old could. Which was very. “You’re supposed to help me! Not make fun of me!”

“I can do both, can’t I?” Leo said automatically, lips twitching into a smile against his will. Another round of appreciative laughter came from his housemates.

 _“Leooooooo!”_ Mikey whined, angry tears prickling on the edges of his eyes. _“Stop it!”_

“I’m sorry, really, but you just-” Leo snorted, gesturing at Mikey’s orangeness. “It’s just too funny. I’m sorry, but it _is._ If you wanted your dye redone though, why didn’t you just get Donnie to do it like he usually does? This wouldn’t’ve happened if you did.”

Mikey bristled, literally, and his hair poofed up. “Because Donnie is busy with April and they’re _both_ busy with stupid magical sciences and stupid magical experiments and it’s all really stupid and _you’re stupid too!”_

Then Mikey let out a sharp cry, grabbed the closest goblet, and doused Leo in it. Leo was left wiping purple grape juice out of his eyes, already feeling the stickiness get everywhere, and Mikey bolted, still crying.

“Wait- wait, Mikey! I’m sorry!” Leo exclaimed, struggling to extract himself from the table in his haste. “I’m _sorry!”_

The laughter of his housemates followed him out of the hall, and Leo didn’t think they sounded so nice anymore.

 

 

 

 

An hour later, after they were both washed up and Leo had hunted down Donnie and April both- they sat in the mostly empty Hufflepuff common room, where he, as punishment for being mean, was braiding Mikey’s hair back by hand. Instead of by wand, which was how they usually did it.

Exampled by Donnie, swirling his own dark hair into long braids down his neck, taking only a quick swish of his wand. Then he’d started hand braiding April’s red hair just for fun. Into a looser set though, since hers didn’t need the same treatment Donnie’s and Mikey’s did.

“I would’ve helped him if I’d known,” Donnie said, tying April’s braid off with an elastic. “You’re still new at wand work, Mikey. I wouldn’t have brushed you off on this.”

“Yeah. well. Too late now.” Mikey said sulkily, letting Leo tug his hair into another braid. They were aiming for ten. Leo’s hands were going to be really sore after this. “You can fix it though, right?”

“Color removal is simple,” Donnie said flippantly. “Even Casey could do it.”

“Somehow I doubt he could,” April said, admiring Donnie’s handiwork on her hair. “He has a tendency to make thing explode even when they feasibly shouldn’t. He’d probably get the color out, and then get it everywhere else.”

Donnie seemed to be considering the possibilities of that, and April elbowed him in the side. They had one rule that they actually followed, and that was that there were no pranks on Sundays. Because at least _one day_ of the week had to be mayhem free.

Leo shook his head at them both, and focused on getting the starting point of Mikey’s cornrow right. “Hey Mikey, I really am sorry. I was hoping you’d laugh along with me, not get upset.”

“Mgh,” Mikey mumbled. His head drifted back a bit, as Leo tugged gently on his hair. “Apology accepted and stuff. I guess. Just don’t be such a butt next time.”

“Got it. But…you’re usually able to roll with this sort of thing easily, what’s gotten into you today?” Leo asked.

Mikey remained quiet, and that got Leo’s attention as well as Donnie’s. Leo paused his braiding, and tilted Mikey’s head back to see his face. “Mikey, what’s going on?”

Mikey squirmed, and because Leo’s fingers were still in his hair, he couldn’t get away. It took a long minute of all three of the older kids staring at him, before Mikey caved and said, “Some guys made fun of me, okay?”

“Who?” Leo asked, noting the stiffer postures to April and Donnie already.

“Just- just some guys. In my house.”

“That’s not the full story, Mikey. You wouldn’t react like this unless…” Leo put it together, closed his eyes, and remembered the summer after Donnie and Raph’s first year away from home. How Mikey had gotten involved with bullying, and then kept it a _secret._

Donnie put it together just as Leo did, and exclaimed, “Oh for- _your own housemates?”_

Mikey whined, and covered his still orange face.

“Mikey,” Leo said, releasing his brother’s hair and grasping his shoulders instead. He’d finish the braids later; this was more important. “What did they say to you?”

“Stupid stuff!” Mikey said, still hiding. “It was just stupid stuff!”

“It’s not if it’s making you upset. _Tell me,_ Mikey.”

“Stuff about our skin color, okay? How orange looked better or something! I don’t know what else but- it’s- it’s just stupid stuff! It doesn’t mean anything!”

“It means detention for somebody,” Donnie said in a low tone, light hitting his glasses as he tilted his chin upwards. “It means detention, letters written home, and _payback.”_

April nodded solemnly, and Leo saw both of them reaching for their wands on the coffee table. He felt he was losing control of the situation very quickly, and he couldn’t even say he was upset about that.

“Mikey, it’s not stupid,” Leo said calmly, prying Mikey’s hands away from his face. Mikey’s expression was screwed up again, supressing emotions and probably tears. Leo placed his hands on either side of Mikey’s head, and gave his brother a warm smile. “It’s against the rules for them to say that to you, and they’re not going to get away with it. I know I won’t let them, the school won’t let them, and our brothers _definitely_ won’t let them. On that note- Donnie, April, please refrain from doing anything that can be traced back to us. Give that message to Raph and Casey as well, since I know the second they hear about this…”

“Please, who do you take us for?” Donnie said, giving Leo a look. Leo saw the familiar glint Donnie always got when his brain into hyper-drive, and he was getting ready to make something less than appropriate happen. April had a scarily similar look in her eyes, and Leo wasn’t sure if he was surprised by that or not. He opted for not.

Leo glanced back at Mikey, who was steadily starting to smile in relief. Leo ran his hands over the half-finished braids on his brother’s head, and returned Mikey’s smile. “C’mon, what do you say we go point out those assholes, and cause a bit of Sunday mayhem?”

“You swore,” Mikey said, gleefully at that. “And we’re breaking the rule?”

“For this? Rules don’t exist until we get to the part where we inform the teachers.”

Mikey, though still orange and with only half a head of braids, laughed brightly like he always did, and Leo felt like he’d been fully forgiven what he’d done earlier.

Of course, when Donnie had come back with Raph and Casey both, and the two of them had immediately yelled, _“I’M GONNA PUNCH THEM SO HARD-”_ , Leo had had a whole new issue to deal with.

He didn’t mind much, even as he listened to his siblings and their friends plan out a revenge prank that would get them _all_ in trouble if they got caught- because Mikey was smiling again, not at all bothered by being orange still, and back to his usual self.

They didn’t get caught, even though the evidence of what they’d done clung to the walls hours afterwards, and Leo got to stand next to Mikey through the whole meeting with the Headmistress and the two slurring idiots who’d insulted his brother.

The two older boys seemed a lot less full of themselves, after being coated head to toe in mysteriously appearing neon colored paint. With a castle as old as Hogwarts, who knew what sort of ancient spells there may be lying around? A real shame they triggered such an effective one. It could take _days_ to get the enchanted paint off their skin and robes and hair...

And oh, what a mystery it was, how the paint kept appearing on whichever clothes they changed into. As though it was enchanted to coat every article of clothing they owned, and not disappear until someone deemed it was time for it to. How magical, and definitely not something Donnie and Casey cooked up.

Leo had repressed a smile the whole time through the meeting, and shushed Mikey when he started giggling. Mikey was still orange, but he seemed content with that. And if he was, then so was Leo.

 

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back to donnie and raph's first year again, with another installment in the ongoing series of Things Donnie Should Not Know But Does Anyways.

 

 

“This one? No? Alright, well about this one? It’s fresh,” Donnie mumbled, sorting through the cabinet of spell ingredients. “I- what? Oh. No you’re right. That would work better. Good catch.”

He pushed the bottles aside, and reached far into the back of the usually locked cabinet. It only took a bit of tip-toeing, but he managed to get his hands around the right bottle. “This one? It looks like the right one.”

A pleased hum ran through his mind, and Donnie smiled. He stepped away from the shelves, closing the doors as he did. This was the one ingredient they needed from here, for now at least. They’d be back later.

The Book sat open on the classroom table, the only other occupant of the potions classroom besides Donnie. Its pages glowed softly, and it flipped itself to the correct page that Donnie needed. A small cauldron emerged from nothing as it did, already bubbling and hot.

Donnie approached the small, steaming cauldron, and uncorked the vial he’d been instructed to get. The clear liquid changed color as he poured it out, shifting hues three times before it was fully emptied into the boiling cauldron. The liquid already inside the cauldron hissed, and gave a large poof of smoke.

Donnie traced the edge of the Book’s pages, listening to its soft whispers. “We only need a few more things, right? I know where we can get most of them.”

A hush of words Donnie couldn’t quite catch, but he understood.

“I know, I’m being careful. No worries.”

The Book whispered louder, flipping its pages in agitation and vanishing the small cauldron again.

“I promise! There’s really no need to worry, okay? I know you’d keep me safe anyways.”

That elicited another pleased hum, and Donnie felt like something brushed his cheek affectionately. He smiled, and picked up the Book. “I trust you. You’ve trusted me with so much, why wouldn’t I return it?”

Then he frowned, and rubbed the spine of the Book, listening to its whispers about others before him. Who’d failed to trust. “I’m not like them. I’m not scared. I won’t leave you down there any longer, I promise. You only have to wait a few more weeks until the potion is done.”

A flurry of excited whispers wrapped around Donnie, and he laughed, feeling bubbly and warm. He wished he could keep the Book open more often; it spoke so much louder when he did. And he loved listening to it, the Book’s whispers sounding like lilting notes and hymns as they floated through the air… like music, sung soft and comfortingly.

Of course, it had told him it was so much bigger than just lullaby songs. It would sing him a real song, when it was back again. Show Donnie the true reach of its powers.

Donnie couldn’t wait.

An enchanted school bell rang through the walls, and Donnie sighed. That meant he had to attend class again, despite already being three assignments ahead of everyone else. Honestly, first year work was too easy. He didn’t know why Raph complained so bitterly about it, the few times Donnie saw him the last while.

He hadn’t spent much time with his twin lately. Donnie thought Raph might’ve been getting annoyed by that, but he seemed mostly invested in his new friend, Casey. And while Donnie was busy April often, most of his time…

The Book’s hum swelled louder, wrapping Donnie’s mind in what was its version of a hug, and Donnie sighed contently.

Most of his time went into the Book’s call, but he didn’t regret spending all hours with the Book. Not at all.

And as much as he’d like to spend more time pilfering ingredients from the supposedly student proof cabinets- this school’s security left something to be desired, in his opinion- Donnie had class soon. Mind numbing, average level studies class.

The Book hummed a pleasant and sympathetic goodbye, and Donnie shut it tight.

Then he blinked, and wondered why he was standing in an empty classroom.

The second warning bell rang, and Donnie scrambled for his school bag on the tabletop. He grumbled under his breath, gathering up all his scattered notes.

He kept doing this- going somewhere to work on his own, and then spacing out for the whole free study period. He didn’t know why, and it was starting to really make him mad. He had _work to do_ , dammnit. If he was going to keep ahead of his classes, then he needed to actually _do_ the work.

Donnie shoved all his work into his bag, and threw it over his shoulder as he hurried out of the classroom. He kept one book out of the bunch, and clutched it tightly to his chest.

He didn’t know why, and as he started sprinting for his muggle’s history class, he didn’t really bother to think deeply on the action.

 

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set post Mikey's first year, chilling in the Hamato household. Donnie WILL figure Mikey's cat out. He WILL.

 

 

Donnie circled the table, eyes narrowed and wand in hand.

His current subject of study stared evenly back at him, eyes also narrowed. Tail lashing in the early morning light of their kitchen, pointed ears swiveling towards every movement Donnie made.

Donnie slowly reached out, and poked it in the side, eliciting a displeased _“mrow!”_

“Interesting.” Donnie mumbled, still circling the definitely abnormal cat.

“Don, it’s a cat, let it go,” Raph said from his chair, turning a page of his magazine. He’d been watching Donnie through the whole process, and Donnie could tell his twin was bored already. Even though Donnie hadn’t figured out the cat- _yet, because he definitely would-_ and there was still lots of data to collect.

Donnie picked up his clipboard from a chair, scribbled a few notes detailing reaction times of his subject, and then poked kitty again.

She swatted at his wand, and hissed. Could he even safely call her a ‘she’ though? Mikey had simply shown her to them one day, and proclaimed her both his cat and a girl. Kitty hadn’t let Donnie close enough to check, and Mikey couldn’t tell a marble from a bowling ball sometimes. And not that Mikey was stupid- his Slytherin status proved just the opposite- but good _god_ he could be purposefully obtuse sometimes.

Donnie poked kitty in the side again, eliciting both a _“kssh!”_ _and_ a swat.

Fascinating, the way her eyes would gleam when she did that.

“Don.” Raph said again.

“I _will_ figure this cat out,” Donnie replied stubbornly.

_“Donnie.”_

“She’s not normal! She’s not even a familiar!” Donnie exclaimed. “Look at her, does she seem like a normal cat to you?”

“She looks like a cat. Leave it at that.”

Donnie bent down, glowering at the definitely, _definitely_ abnormal cat sitting on their breakfast table. “You. are _evil._ I _know_ you are.”

Kitty let out a long yawn, flashing all her pointy little teeth at Donnie and certainly trying to intimidate him.

Donnie narrowed his eyes, pointing his wand at the cat. _“Eeeeeeeviiiiiiiil.”_

“Oh my god, Donnie,” Raph said in an exasperated tone.

“Well she is! And we don’t even know if she’s a she!”

“You need a hobby.”

“Uncovering and examining and _figuring out_ undocumented magical phenomena _is_ my hobby!”

“That’s a really wordy way to say that you’re a fucking nerd and need a _different_ hobby.”

IC kitty yowled loudly, making Donnie jerk backwards and almost lose his footing. Raph snorted at the action, calmly flipping his page again.

“See!” Donnie exclaimed, pointing at the cat with his wand. “Evil! Abnormal!”

“Sure, Don, sure.”

“KITTY!” Mikey shrieked, barging into the kitchen to sweep his cat off the table. He cuddled her close, whispering, _“Shh shh shh girl, I’m here now, mean ol’ Donnie can’t hurt you no more.”_

“I wasn’t hurting her!” Donnie interjected, because he _hadn’t been._ He would never do something so unethical in his studying! “I was just examining her!”

“Kitty is perfect and needs no such thing!” Mikey said, shielding his certainly evil cat from Donnie. Kitty peeked over Mikey’s shoulder, nosing through his long neon curls, and gave a drawn out _“rooooooooorw”_ at Donnie.

Donnie narrowed his eyes again at the cat, adjusting his glasses in response to the obvious challenge. “I _will_ figure you out one day, _cat._ If that’s really what you are.”

“Kitty is a kitty! Nothing else!” Mikey said, even as his cat gave Donnie the evil eye. Oh, and now she was _purring_ as Mikey berated Donnie. Proof! Definite proof!

“You can’t keep her from me forever,” Donnie said, advancing a step towards his foolish little brother and abomination pet. “I’ll get a hold of her and figure this out eventually.”

“You will do no! Such! THING!” Mikey shouted, and with that, ran out of the room with his cat.

“I can’t believe dad let him keep her,” Donnie huffed, annoyed that he’d lost his study subject yet again. “She’s obviously not a normal cat, there’s no way. I mean- don’t you ever see how her eyes do that thing? With the flashing?? She _can’t_ be a normal creature.”

“Donnie, you have _literally_ no leg to stand on with this subject,” Raph said, shaking his head. “Remember last year? With _your_ abnormal creature?”

“Different circumstances! Mine was for a good reason!”

“You’re being a hypocrite.”

Donnie picked up his clipboard, ignoring his twin’s snide comments as he scribbled furiously. _Intimate connection with chosen host, dependent but not unable to defend self, hostile to interference...'_ “I _will_ figure that cat out, even if it takes me all summer!”

“I’m sure you will,” Raph said.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence.” Donnie replied.

“I was being sarcastic.”

“So was I.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for the future: Donnie never does figure IC kitty out and it remains as one of his most frustrating failures.


	13. Chapter 13

 

 

“Are we seriously doing this?” April whispered, peeking around the corner with the brothers.

“Are you kidding? Of _course we are,”_ Raph replied, jostling with April and Donnie and Casey _and_ Mikey for a good position. “No way I’m missing this chance to get blackmail. Karai would give me that stupid disappointed look if we don’t send her some good gossip on this.”

“I feel like he’s going to notice us,” April cautioned, watching Leo walk further down the streets of Hogsmeade. “I mean. You guys have this sixth sense for each other, he can’t be _that_ oblivious.”

“Have you seen him lately?” Mikey whispered in a not exactly whispering voice. His elbow jabbed April’s side, and she jabbed him back. “He’s like, _totally_ head over heels. He can’t see anything except _hearts_ and _bird songs_ and other mushy crap.”

“Mikey has a point,” Donnie muttered, shoving Casey out of his way to peer better at his big brother’s activities. “Which is unusual, but true enough this time around.”

“Wow, fuck you, Dee.”

Raph elbowed Mikey hard in the side, and said, “ _Hey_ , no swearing. You’re twelve.”

“You got to swear when you were twelve!”

“Yeah, and look where that got me. So shut up, we’re going after him. I’m not losing this chance to take a shit ton of photos of Leo’s first actual _date.”_

“You just swore right now! No fair!”

Raph grabbed Mikey in a headlock, and the two of them started tussling even as they tried to move forwards. And with Donnie and Casey at that moment, it wasn’t much different; both of them wrestling with hissed words at one another.

April stepped out of the way as Casey finally shoved Donnie off him, sending the other boy sprawling on the sidewalk, and April rolled her eyes at both of them. The two boys made faces at each other as Donnie recovered, but they settled down enough for the whole group to move forwards.

They were all breaking school rules right then- _so many rules_ , as Leo would often moan- and though April wasn’t overly concerned about that, she _was_ concerned that Leo would spot their chaotic group. And then they’d _all_ be in trouble.

But. Like Raph had said. _Blackmail_ , and the fact that April was _really curious_ about how Leo’s date with Usagi was going to go. The white haired boy was talking animatedly with Leo, who seemed just as excited to be out and about. Even from far down the street, April could tell they were having a good time so far.

“Wait, but didn’t Leo go on, like…” Casey counted off his fingers quickly, and held up eight fingers. “Eight dates already? But with ladies?”

“Pfft, yep,” Mikey confirmed. Then he grinned and shrugged. “But they all went badly, or didn’t go anywhere. Leo’s not much of a lady-killer, unfortch for him.”

“You’re all awful to him,” April chuckled, even though she’d been on team _‘torment-Leo-as-much-as-humanly-possible’_ for a few years now. “He just doesn’t know how to talk to a girl, is all.”

“He seems to be chatting quite easily with _Usagi,”_ Donnie laughed, following April as she led them all to hide behind another store’s porch step. She let out a small “ _oof”_ as the boys all crowded in with her, and shoved her against the railing. In annoyed response, she kicked Mikey and Raph in the shins, and shoved Casey and Donnie out of her space.

Then, April noticed- as the boys around her continued to make a fuss about who stood where- that a certain someone was giving them all the evil-eye from down the way.

“Whoops,” April said, sinking down so that Leo’s ire was aimed mostly at his siblings and Casey. The boys all froze as she did, noticed Leo noticing them, and quickly ducked down beside her. For all the good it did, since the railing was a railing, and not a convenient wall.

 _“Busted!”_ Mikey exclaimed under his breath, not sounding regretful at all.

“Do we retreat or push on?” Donnie questioned seriously.

“I haven’t gotten my dirt yet, so I say we push on,” Raph said, holding up the camera he and Donnie had produced earlier that afternoon.

“Think he’s gonna hex us?” Casey asked, and he actually sounded excited at the prospect of Leo trying to be-spell them all like that.

“He can _try,”_ April said, already making plans to duck behind anyone close by whenever Leo started shooting spells at them. What could she say; she had her priorities in order. Mikey would understand, being a Slytherin. The others would just have to tough it.

 _“I certainly will,”_ Leo growled suddenly from behind April, and she jumped backwards from his voice and into the cluster of her friends. April did her best to hide behind Raph- who would probably hold up best under a hex- and shrank just a little under Leo’s glare at them all.

Usagi seemed amused by the whole fiasco, and waved pleasantly from behind Leo, who was standing over the porch steps with his hands on his hips.

“Hello there,” Usagi greeted with a smile. “I’m surprised to see you all here. Or maybe not. Leo _did_ warn me about you five trying some trickery.”

“And it looks like I was right to,” Leo said crossly, still giving them all a stern glare.

 _“Buuuuuusted,”_ Mikey said again, only to get elbowed by everyone around him. He whined at the abuse, and April sighed despairingly. Usually, they were better at sneaking around. Maybe today was just their off day.

As Leo started berating them for invasion of privacy- _“-one evening, ONE EVENING, I like to be able to do something that doesn’t involve you five causing chaos in my life-!”_ \- April thought to herself, _yup, probably their off day._

At least Usagi thought the whole thing was humorous. Good for him. April figured she was in for a long night of reprimands from the boy who acted like he was her big brother, _especially_ once Raph raised his camera and took a picture of Leo’s angry face.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> following these events:
> 
> karai thought the photos of angry leo's face, and then embarrassed leo's face, and then angrier leo's face chasing them all down, were absolutely hilarious and keeps her favorites framed.
> 
> usagi thought the whole thing was funny, and agreed to a second date with leo even after their first one got derailed so badly.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tiny first year casey and raph - ft their first meetings.

 

 

Casey turned in circles, trying to take everything in all at once.

Wizards were real. _Wizards were real._

To make it even cooler, _he_ was a wizard.

He was in a wizard’s market-shopping-center-thingy. As a wizard himself. He was going to go to a school for wizards. Said school semester started in just a few weeks. He was going to get a real actual _magical wand._

Casey thought his mind was going to explode from all the awesome.

He turned in a circle one more time, trying to relocate his dad and his sister and their uncle from his mom’s side who was _also_ a wizard and-

-he ran smack into someone, and fell on his butt.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” Someone exclaimed indignantly.

Casey rubbed his nose, and glared at the person he’d run into.

The other boy was a lot shorter, a lot darker, and a lot stockier than Casey. He met Casey’s glare with his own, sneering.

“ _You_ watch where you’re goin’, _asshole,”_ Casey hissed, rubbing his face. His nose still smarted, because _dang_ this kid had a hard forehead.

“What’d you call me?!” The boy exclaimed furiously.

“You heard me, _ASSHOLE!”_

The boy made an angry, wordless sound, and scrambled to get on his feet.

Casey got off the ground too, and got right in other boy’s face. They glared at each other, and Casey balled his fists as he got ready to fight.

But, just as the shorter boy charged forwards, a hand snaked out of the bustling crowd and yanked him backwards. Casey watched as another hand joined that one, and then another, as three other kids emerged from the streaming of passing wizards.

They all seemed like they were related, matching dark skin and curly hair between the four of them. There was also the way they were handling snarling boy Casey had been _trying_ to fight, that tipped him off that they were all siblings.

“I leave you alone for _one minute,_ and you’re already starting a fight?” One of the boys exclaimed in a frustrated tone. “We’re supposed to be _shopping_ , not _brawling._ ”

“I can do both!” The shorter boy yelled, struggling in the grip of the other boys.

“ _Raph,_ we need to get to the bookstore before all the textbooks are _gone,”_ One of the other boys said, tugging on the shorter boy’s cloak-jacket-thingy. His glasses slipped a bit on his nose, and he shoved them up as he and the other two boys continued trying to haul the angry kid away. “Come _on,_ if you make us go to school without the proper materials, I swear on your entire collection of dust bunnies _I will make you pay.”_

 _“Fuck off!”_ The angry kid yelled, only for the tallest, and probably oldest, boy to wrap an arm around his mouth and yell, _“No swearing!”_

“Sorry about him!” The smallest kid chirped as they dragged angry kid away, his bright orange hair flopping into his face as he dodged a furious elbow flail. “He always does this when he’s stressed.”

 _“I’m not stressed!”_ The angry kid yelled as a parting shot. “ _I’m PISSED!”_

Casey only caught the tail end of the glasses kid saying, _“You’re_ always _pissed…”_ before all four boys disappeared into the crowd again.

Casey’s desire to fight then had nowhere to go, and he ended up scratching his neck as he looked after where the boys had gone. And he hadn’t even gotten their names, dammnit.

Someone then jabbed him in the back, _hard,_ and Casey let out a list of explanatives that his ma would have smacked him for. He whirled on the attacker, and found his little sister glaring up at him.

“You got lost,” She said in a disapproving tone. Then as an afterthought, “ _And_ you swore. Why are you such a cussbucket?”

“Why the hell do you know the word ‘ _cussbucket’_ anyways?” Casey muttered, rubbing the spot his sister’s sharp little fingers had stabbed him.

“Because daddy calls you that all the time,” Noel replied with a huff.

Casey rolled his eyes, and gave his sister a light shove. “Whatever. Where’d dad and uncle-”

“Café,” Noel supplied, pointing at a shop adjacent to their current position. “We’re getting ice cream, ‘cause we’re being such good kids. Until you wandered off, _again.”_

“Uuuuuuuugh, I was only gone for like a _minute, god.”_

“And, 'cause you're holding up everything, I’ll tattle that you were trying to start a fight-”

“Hey, that guy started it, not me!”

“-unless you give me half your share.”

Casey stared at his sister. Noel stared back.

Why is it, that even though they had four years between them, she always backed him into corners like this?

“A quarter,” Casey said.

“Half,” Noel repeated.

“A quarter, and I’ll clean your share of dishes tonight.”

“…deal.”

They shook hands, and Noel dragged him back towards where their dad and uncle had gone.

Casey put the angry kid and his three brothers out of his mind, and didn’t give any more thought to them other than that he’d missed his chance to fight a wizard. Other than that, he didn’t even remember the kid after a week.

Until, that is, he boarded the _incredibly cool magical train-_ and found the kid in the same train car he was looking to sit in.

They stared at each other, and then at the same time, yelled _“YOU!!”_ at a loud enough volume that someone calling themselves a ‘prefect’ came to scold them for shouting.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is a lot of punching involved before they become best friends. 
> 
> a lot. of punching.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more first year donnie and raph, because raph is noticing something is Up with that book, and that it's causing donnie to go a little... haywire.

 

 

Raph eyed the book on the table, grimacing at it. This was the first time in weeks he and his twin had had a moment to spend time together, and he was now noticing that he hadn’t seen Donnie without the book once during those weeks.

Donnie was in the washroom for the moment, separated from the book he carried around like it was glued to him. And it was just Raph, alone at the library table, highly tempted to look in that book.

What was so important about the book anyways? Donnie went through them like Mikey went through chocolates; it didn’t make sense that he’d be so attached to a single volume of literature for so long.

Only one way to find out why, then.

Raph reached across the table, picking up the sizable book, and brought it close to him. The blank cover and spine didn’t give any information away, and Raph fingered the edges of it. Donnie was really, really protective of this thing, going so far as to warn Raph off from touching it while he was gone, and Raph knew his brother would be mad if he found out.

But Raph _had to know._

He placed it back on the table, gently gripping its front cover to lift it up and open, and-

A hand slammed down on his, and Raph jerked back from the sudden attack. Donnie snatched the book away from him, giving Raph a wild eyed, very angry look.

“I told you _not to touch it,”_ Donnie hissed, clutching the book close. “I _told you,_ Raph.”

“Jeez- I was just looking at it!” Raph defended. “What’s the big deal?”

“Because no one’s allowed to touch it except for _me,_ _okay?”_ Donnie said, _snarled,_ and wow. This was a new one. Donnie only reacted like that _sometimes,_ and definitely not over some book. Donnie glared at Raph, and went to his side of the table. He didn’t even put the book down as he started shoving his coursework into his satchel. “I guess I can’t trust you near it either, then. I don’t know what I was expecting, I should have _known_ better-”

“Donnie- Donnie, it’s just a _book,”_ Raph said, concerned _and_ annoyed. He stood up from his chair, just as Donnie roughly shrugged his bag onto his shoulder. “Hey, Don, c’mon. You’re freaking me out here. What’s got you so stressed out?”

 _“Nothing!”_ Donnie snapped, backing away from the table and Raph. “It’s none of your business!”

Raph followed him, even as Donnie’s hair steadily got puffier and puffier with agitation. That wasn’t a good sign. “Either its _nothing,_ or it’s _something_ , and you don’t want me involved. So which is it Donnie, _what are you hiding?”_

 _“Shut up!”_ Donnie shouted. “There’s nothing! Leave me alone!”

“There’s _definitely something, so fess up!”_ Raph shouted back, even though they were in a library, and he could hear people shushing them.

“You wouldn’t understand, _no one could!”_ Donnie exclaimed, backing into a book aisle as he did.

That comment stung, because maybe Raph wasn’t as smart as Donnie, but they were _twins,_ and they told each _everything._ So Raph squared his shoulders, still advancing on his brother, and shot back, “Well I could _try_ if you’d just _tell me what’s going on!”_

Donnie’s eyes flashed, and he yelled, “Leave me _alone,_ Raph, I’m not telling you _anything!”_

“Oh _yes you are,_ and you’re going to start with what this _stupid book is,”_ Raph grabbed at the book, ignoring Donnie’s protests, and as it fell from their hands, opening up as it headed for the floor-

 -and then _something_ rushed through the air, and Raph was flung backwards.

He stumbled, and fell on his back, but otherwise wasn’t hurt at all. Just annoyed. Raph grunted, pushing himself up off the floor, and found that Donnie had already run away. There wasn’t any evidence that Donnie had even been there to begin with, except for the faint smell of something weird in the air.

Raph sniffed, wrinkling his nose at the smell. For some reason, it reminded him of rain, burnt wood, and ozone.

As he got off the floor, temper and body both smarting, the librarian finally appeared from behind the shelves of books. Her beady eyed glare pinned Raph where he stood, and he didn’t have to be as smart as his twin to know he was in a lot of trouble for causing a fight in the library. And Donnie wasn’t even around to help take the blame. Great.

Raph endured the scolding with a tight scowl, and ran off to find his brother as soon as he could. But he couldn’t locate Donnie _anywhere_ on campus, and the Ravenclaw house was off-limits to him. Then, even at dinner, his brother was missing from his table.

Raph considered going to Leo for help, or maybe a teacher, but shoved the idea aside. Whatever was up with his brother, he’d deal with it himself. And with Casey, maybe. Telling on Donnie for acting weird about a book wasn’t exactly something he could get his brother in trouble for. Not that he wanted to. He was just. Worried. Kind of.

Something was really, really off with his twin, and he needed to find out what.

Raph turned his mashed potatoes into mush, only half hearing Casey’s side of their conversation through dinner, and started to plan following his brother around.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're steadily heading for 'my precioussss' territory with donnie here. tsk tsk, better get a handle on yourself, kiddo.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk what year this is. i think leo's in his sixth year or something. 
> 
> poor leo, his suffering never gets any easier.

 

 

Mikey couldn’t remember what’d brought the topic up, but something had, and he plus his brother and a few curious students started talking about Leo’s magical skills. Following that, someone said something about something, and the discussion of Leo’s Accio spell was brought up.

One of the smallest Hufflepuff students, likely new to the magical world, asked what an Accio spell was.

“Oh, you know,” Mikey said before Leo could. He pulled up his wand from his robe, twirling it into position. “It’s, like, a summoning spell. It goes basically _Accio broom_ or whatever.” He swished his wand half-heartedly as he said that, mimicking vaguely the movements he’d seen Leo do in the past. “And then you have whatever you summoned. Ta da.”

The first year Hufflepuff raised their own wand, seeming to get ideas. Leo put out his hand to push his new housemate’s wand back down. “It’s a bit of a higher level spell, so don’t bother until you hit fourth year at least,” Leo said in a cautioning tone. “It takes a lot of hard work and focus to make it work, and I had the benefit of extra tutoring to help me along. Since you don’t have my cousin to coach you, it’d be better to just wait until you’re better practiced before trying, or it won’t work like Mikey’s didn’t.”

Mikey shrugged. He hadn’t really been trying anyways; it’d be weird if his half-assed hand movements and vague picturing of Leo’s broom caused anything to happen. That spell took real focus, like Leo and Donnie and Karai had, and Mikey sometimes could barely focus for more than a few seconds-

A crash from outside the library echoed through the air suddenly. Heads turned towards it, students looking up from their books.

Mikey’s easy smile froze.

He turned to look at Leo. Leo looked just as blank faced worried/panicky.

“What was that?” One of Leo’s tour group asked, the one that’d asked the question in the first place. Their curious eyes turned towards the door, along with the other cluster of Hufflepuff students.

“Uh,” Mikey said, feeling trepidation sneak up on him as more crashing started in the hallway outside.

“Mikey.” Leo said in a tight voice, his expression blanching as shouting started over the crashing.

“I didn’t think it’d work!” Mikey exclaimed, just as the broom came rocketing into the library without _any regard_ for what got in its way. Three students had to dive out of the way, or risk concussion by rogue broom.

It slapped into Mikey’s waiting hand, in the process scattering Leo’s Pufflings. Mikey stared at the broom now in his grip, and felt the all too familiar feeling of _oh shit_ climbing up his spine.

There were voices shouting in the hallways outside. Lots of voices. Mikey then remembered that the Hufflepuff house was in the heart of the castle, and they were currently on the far end from that spot. The broom had gone through who knew what to get to the library, and the rising clamor heading towards their position told _exactly_ how many people had noticed the ruckus.

That sounded like at least three of Mikey’s teachers. _Shiiiiit._

“Oh my god,” Leo said in a despairing voice, also staring at the broom with open horror. “Mikey, _oh my god.”_

“I’m sorry!” Mikey said hurriedly, shoving the broom at the closest first year. “Here, kid, happy first day of school! That’s yours now.”

“I’ve been a prefect for _one day,”_ Leo said, clutching his robe’s badge. “ _One. Day._ And now I’m going to lose that. Because you, Mikey, are still apparently _freakish_ _ly and_   _horribly_ _good at random magic spells.”_ Leo hissed accusingly. Then he gestured sharply at the kid clutching his broom. “And you can’t just shove the issue off on a first year! Look at them, you’re giving them anxiety.”

Said anxious first year nodded furiously along with Leo’s words, and tried to hand the broom back to Mikey.

Mikey dodged the attempt, calling out, “Don’t care, just watch me!” and booking it for one of his hidden exits from the library. “I wasn’t supposed to be here anyways, so _gottagoseeyouatdinnerbyyyyyyye!”_

“Mikey!” Leo’s scandalized and furious voice shouted over the crowd pouring into the library, searching for the wayward broom. Mikey gave a salute to Leo, and turned tail to disappear into the wall of the library. He only caught the end of things as the tunnel opened and closed around him, but that definitely sounded like Leo’s ‘ _I’m surrounded by horrible people and have maxed out my patience meter’_ shriek.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mikey was not actually supposed to be tagging along for the hufflepuff tour. he was supposed to be in a divination class that he usually falls asleep in. leo regrets later ever letting mikey near his young and impressionable pufflings, seeing as mikey teaches them all prank tricks that no one can stop them from executing on each other and the rest of the hufflepuff house.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i forget what age i set this at but i'm fairly certain karai is sixteen or something here.
> 
> cue family shenanigans for matchmaking, lmao.

 

 

“Lipstick?”

“Check.”

“Perfume?”

“Check.”

“Eyeliner, earrings, overall badassery cranked to eleven?”

“Check, check, and you think I’m badass?”

“You once punched someone so hard two of their teeth fell out,” Raph said, finishing checking off the messy list he and the seven of them had amassed. “It’s kind of hard not to think so.”

Karai grinned, boosted by Raph’s admittance of thinking his cousin was anything other than overbearing and an asshole. Raph pulled out his magically-altered walkie-talkie Donnie and April had whipped up for all of them, and pushed down on the talk button. “This is red-eagle, calling yellow-hawk. Is everyone in position?”

 _“Yellow-hawk reporting to red-eagle,”_ April replied through the brief static. _“We are in position! Send in ‘The Black Mumba’, the target has entered our sights and is ready for first contact.”_

 _“She ordered a parfait!”_ Mikey interrupted. _“Orange-peregrine calling blue-condor, can we go get some of those later? I’m hungry.”_

_“Blue-condor to orange-peregrine: no.”_

_“Aw, but Leo-”_

_“We’re saving this money for the bus ride back to school. I am not getting stranded and missing curfew. Again.”_

_“Black-thunderbird to everyone: I agree with Mike let’s get some parfaits.”_

_“Purple-owl to Casey: we never agreed to letting you call yourself that.”_

_“Black-thunderbird to purple-owl: I do what I want.”_

“I can’t believe you guys gave yourselves codenames,” Karai sniggered. “What are you, twelve?”

“Making fun of codenames? What are you, twelve?” Raph mocked back. He listened to the radio be filled with his family’s endless squabbling about treats and bus rides and codenames, before sighing and clicking into it again. “Listen up assholes, Black Mumba’s comin’ in hot, so get your sorry asses into position again and quit drawing attention to yourselves.”

 _“Who died and made you leader?”_ Donnie snarked over the comm.

“I hold the clipboard, there for I am the leader. Suck it.”

 _“I didn’t agree to that,”_ Leo spoke up.

“You get no say. Now everyone shut up and act like goddamn professionals, or I swear to god I’ll let Spike shit on everything you love.”

Karai sniggered louder, hand over her perfectly painted lips. Raph thought they’d done a pretty good job of coaching her into form; on point makeup, good outfit, general attitude of confidence that didn’t seem _too_ fake. Hell yeah, they were so making this happen. He was tired of hearing Karai moan about losing her chance to date her best friend- which, in his opinion, she should’ve jumped on years ago- and he wanted her to stop being so mopey all the time.

This was a win-win plan for everyone involved. Karai got her girl, they got some dirt. Also helped out a close family member stop feeling sorry for herself, but mostly dirt.

“Ready?” Raph asked, ignoring the clamor over the radio.

Karai took a deep breath, and smoothed her recently trimmed bangs one more time. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Hell yeah you’re ready,” Raph grinned, and smacked his cousin’s shoulder. “Now go get your girl, we got your back.”

Karai puffed up her chest, acting more like her younger self than her teen self as she tried to ramp up her confidence. “Alright! Here goes everything!” She darted out of the alley they’d been hiding in, and began a brisk, steady walk towards the café where Shini was waiting.

Raph watched her go, and checked off one more box on his list. _Cameras ready to go, check._

 _“Purple-owl to red-eagle: do you actually think this is going to work?”_ Donnie asked over the radio.

Raph brought it up to his mouth, and said, “Red-eagle to purple-owl: heck if I know, but it’ll be funny as fuck if it does. Everyone got your cameras?”

_“Got ‘em!”_

_“How does this even work-”_

_“I think I took a pic of my toe.”_

_“In hand.”_

_“Raph would you be offended if I used this to take a picture of my nostrils?”_

“Mikey so help me god, if you do that with my camera I’ll hang you from a turret.”

_“Roger that.”_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *karai's family in the distance*: "You gotta, kiss the girl~~~"
> 
> spoilers: they get married one day :D


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't even know what year this is anymore. old enough donnie is sprouting like a weed.
> 
> based on irl shitty life events, ha ha.

 

 

Leo’s eyes swerved and darted across the field; wide and watchful for the snitch. It’d only been a few minutes since the game began, so it wasn’t likely it’d show itself just yet. Still, it never hurt to be prepared.

The echoing yells and calls from his team and Gryffindor’s were mostly muted, since Leo’s job was to find, not defend or attack. He was a little grateful this season he’d been assigned to a position other than beater; his brother and Casey had finally managed to land themselves on their team, and Leo wasn’t eager to go up against their tandem playing just yet. Of course, once summer rolled back around and they all went home…

Leo almost shivered a bit. His family’s games of Quidditch could get fairly rough, and Casey’s style of it fit right into that. Best to stave off the bruises their games would bring for as long as he could.

Leo’s eyes drifted from their still unrevealed target, and his attention caught sight of his brother and April down below. The two of them, courtesy of Mikey, were seated in the Slytherin stands. After the game Leo was currently playing, it’d be the final round of the tournament. Slytherin versus whoever came out on top. Leo hoped it would be Hufflepuff, because they had a secondary roster of players for that possibility, but Gryffindor was strong this year. They already had a slight lead.

Leo frowned, noting that Donnie and April were talking to an adult. No, not talking. Facing down.

Leo hovered a little closer towards the stands, forgetting his job as seeker for a moment.

Actually… Donnie seemed quite upset. His hair, though still restrained by his ponytail, was puffed up in agitation. April beside him didn’t seem happy, either; ruddy cheeked and glaring openly.

The adult, who’s stature was much taller than them, despite Donnie’s ongoing growth spurt, had tilted his head, looking at them with condescension Leo could recognize even from far away. Leo narrowed his eyes, frowning deeper. Just what was going on down there?

Then the adult put out a hand, and pushed Donnie backwards. Leo’s brother stumbled into April, and while the cheers of the crowd drowned out anything Leo might have heard, he saw April’s expression twist the way it always did when she yelled. She looked furious, and Donnie’s hairband finally gave way under the strain of keeping his coils back. He looked-

-scared.

Leo was flying towards them before he even realized it.

He pulled up sharply as he arrived at the stands, eliciting a wave of shock from the individuals sitting on the benches. The adult man turned a surprised look towards Leo, and Leo drew himself up.

“Excuse me,” He said, coldness entering his tone. “Just what do you think you’re doing to my brother and friend?”

The man stared at Leo, and then seemed to recover himself. He gave Leo a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I was just asking if they could move to their own house stands, since this is Slytherin’s, and I wanted to have a good view of my daughter’s game.”

“There are plenty of seats higher up,” Leo countered, not breaking eye contact with the man. “I’m sure you could find one there.”

“But- this _is_ Slytherin’s seating area,” The man countered back. “I don’t see why a pair of… Ravenclaw’s should come and take seats here, when there are stands specifically for them.” Leo’s internal senses twitched; the man didn’t seem like he’d actually meant ‘Ravenclaw’s’ when he said that. When Leo still didn’t back down, he gave Leo another smile; though this one was tighter. “And aren’t you supposed to be seeking? You should get back to that. We’ll discuss this issue ourselves.”

“I don’t feel comfortable leaving you with my family,” Leo said truthfully. None of the adults around them were standing up for Donnie and April, which made the whole thing even more suspicious. It felt like every other time this had happened to his family; no one ever wanted to get involved with unsightly conflicts like this.

The man gave Leo a hard look, and he opened his mouth to say something else, but April cut him off. “We have just as much right to be here as you,” She snapped, all barely restrained fire and fury. “You’re just trying to get us to leave because we got the better seats first!”

The man scoffed. “Neither of them are Slytherin, I don’t see why I, an alumni of this house, should have to concede to you both taking seats that rightfully belong to us. You don’t even have a Slytherin student with you.”

As though summoned by that statement to be ever the contrary, Mikey finally reappeared up the stairs to the stand. He was grinning, arms full of purchasable treats, but that grin fell as he took in the situation. “Hey, uh, what’s going on here?”

“ _You’re_ the Slytherin student?” The man asked, lip curling.

Mikey bristled, catching the man’s tone. “Yeah, what about it?”

“Nothing, Mikey,” Leo interjected. He turned another stern look on the adult. “We’re just having a small disagreement.” Leo distantly thought he heard his teammates shouting at him, but he ignored the sounds. The tournament had been something he’d worked hard for all semester, but this was more important than that. Leo barely kept his tone civil as he spoke. “I’ll ask one more time, please find another place to sit. _Sir.”_

The adult gave Leo a stormy look, his temper obviously reaching its peak. However, he then blanched, and his eyes widened at something behind Leo.

_“Hey Leo-”_

_“-the fuck-”_

_“-does this guy-”_

_“-want with us?”_

The last parts came out in a snarl, and Leo glanced over his shoulder. Raph and Casey had abandoned their positions in the game, and were hovering on either side of him. Their red cloaks blew in the breeze as they slung their bats over their shoulders, both of their chins tilted in a challenging manner.

They glared hard at the adult harassing their family, and Leo felt emboldened to have their unsubtle threat at his side.

Perhaps Donnie did too, since he finally stopped hunching and stood straight; nearly tall enough to be face to face with their harasser. April and Mikey, short as they were, stood just as tall in solidarity; sparking anger from Mikey and steady fury from April. The man started to look nervous, an angry flush climbing up from his cloak’s collar.

Both of the playing teams were yelling at Leo’s back now, and it seemed like Leo and his family’s desertion has brought things to a screeching halt. People were taking notice of what was happening now, and glancing interestedly at the tense situation.

The man grimaced, seeing teachers and other students beginning to head towards where the defected players had gone. He didn’t seem so confident any longer. Leo took the opening as it was.

“I think you should leave now,” He said, no less cold than how he’d been at the beginning.

The man opened his mouth, and then shut it; jaw clenched angrily. Before anyone could arrive to ask about the situation, the adult left in a whirl of cloak and anger. Storming off the stands and shooting Leo’s family a vicious glare as he did.

Leo breathed out a sigh of relief. This sort of encounter was never fun, but sometimes there just wasn’t any way to avoid them. You just had to deal with them and then move one.

He lowered himself onto the stands, dismounting his broom, and set to checking on his brother and April. In the corner of his eye he could see his captain shooting through the sky towards them, as well as Raph and Casey’s, and he braced himself for the oncoming reprimand.

However, the stark relief Donnie had in his expression made the sacrifice worth it. Even if it’d been a game that was at national level, Leo thought he probably would have done same regardless. Hamatos stuck together, period. Raph and Casey’s appearance had only driven that fact home, as well as the stubborn stances Mikey and April had adopted in the face of threat.

It didn’t matter the circumstances, and it never would.

 

 

 

“I’m sorry I abandoned my post,” Leo said, regretful but not remorseful. The whole game had been delayed, and no one had been happy about that. Regardless, he stood with his back straight, not flinching under the gaze of his captain. “But I’m also not sorry. My brother and friend needed me, and I couldn’t turn away from that.”

His captain sighed long and hard, glancing up at the ceiling of their locker room. Everyone else was outside, waiting for Leo’s talking-to to be over. His captain looked resigned as she spoke. “I can’t say I didn’t expect that sort of answer from you, Hamato. It’s always about your family, isn’t it?”

Leo refused to let himself shift his feet awkwardly. “They’re the most important people I have in my life,” He said, tamping down his mild embarrassment for saying it out loud. “It’s always going to be about them.”

His captain sighed again, exasperated. “You’re probably the most Hufflepuff out of us all, Leo. I don’t know how you do it.”

“I’m an older brother,” Leo said, grinning. “What can I say?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyone else remember how the wizarding world is like 80% racist assholes? because i do.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first year-first day of school donnie is the cutest fuckin thing i have ever imagined. he's all knees and elbows and fluff, my god. so fuckin cute.
> 
> the last chapter was a bit harrowing for him, so i did another quick drabble for him and april.

 

 

Donnie’s face burned, and he refused to let his eyes get hot as he tried desperately to smooth his hair back down. Everyone was looking at him, staring at his stupid hair and his stupid sparking magic. He had a wand now, it was supposed to properly channel his magic, _this wasn’t supposed to keep happening._

And yet, just like every time he got upset, his hair continued to poof up and draw all the attention of his new housemates right to him. Donnie wanted to go home, wanted his big brothers to come and distract him from his embarrassment, he wanted Mikey with his even wilder hair to be here and make Donnie feel less like a weirdo. He didn’t want to be alone.

He ducked his head, biting his lip, and tried his best to disappear in the small group of new students. He still felt everyone staring at him, and it made his skin prickle uncomfortably.

Thankfully, the teacher and prefect leading their tour group didn’t ask Donnie why his magic was acting like that. Others had before; in the primary school Donnie had attended. It’d been hard to explain then, and it’d probably be even harder here. He really, really hoped no one would ask.

But he was now in the house of the curious; it’d only be so long before someone would. Donnie was dreading that fact.

“Hey.”

Donnie glanced up from the window he was staring out morosely. The tour was over, and they’d been left to their own devices for their first day of exploration; classes would begin tomorrow.

A girl Donnie recognized from his fellow newbie group stood in the hallway. Her red hair was pulled back in a short ponytail, and her many freckles stood out in the sunlight from outside. She smiled at him. “I just wanted to ask you a question. Do you have a moment?”

Donnie pursed his lips. She… _seemed_ nice enough, but he knew some people weren’t always honest with their intentions. “…sure. What is it?”

“How come your hair did that?” She asked, straight forwards and not hesitating at all. She gestured around her head, mimicking it poofing up. “I’ve never seen anyone’s hair do that before.”

Embarrassment crawled across Donnie’s cheeks again, and he tried to not let it show. He could answer, and let her do what she wanted with the information he gave her. She’d probably go and tell all her friends, and it’d save Donnie from having to repeat himself a hundred times over.

Still, he didn’t enjoy being a gossip topic. Especially about this.

He decided to take a chance; she’d probably find out one way or another. “It’s… a magical condition.”

She stepped closer to him, coming over to the window and facing him head on. Eyes wide and interested. “How so?”

“I… my magic doesn’t work quite right,” Donnie admitted slowly. He refused to shy away, he _refused._ “Or I guess it just doesn’t work like most peoples’. When I get upset, or excited, it gives off excess energy. Or sometimes I have too much, and it can happen then as well. That’s. That’s why my hair did that.”

He waited for her to say _“that’s really weird”_ or _“that’s kind of freaky”_ , but-

“Whoa, really?” She exclaimed. “That’s super neat. I didn’t know magic could do stuff like that.”

“It’s not really supposed to,” Donnie said, still watching her expression warily. “Me and my brothers, we all have it. You just can’t tell with Leo and Raph, since they cut their hair really short to hide it.”

“How come you don’t?” The girl asked, continuing to simply look interested, and non-judgemental.

Donnie reached up to his shoulder, where the longest coils were resting still, since he hadn’t found the effort to conjure up another elastic yet. He grabbed one, and pulled on it a little. “I like it long. My little brother does, too.”

“Can I touch it?” She asked, curiosity openly showing in her eyes. “Please?”

Donnie hesitated again. He got asked this constantly, or didn’t, and people were always trying to touch his hair. Often without his permission. It always felt invasive and uncomfortable for him.

But, the girl standing beside him had asked, very politely at that, and she hadn’t called him any names.

“Don’t pull,” Donnie said, as a way of saying yes _._ The girl reached out and touched one of the longer coils, not pulling, but just holding it. She seemed delighted as she squished the curling hair, seeing how it bounced back into shape immediately.

“So cool,” She said, releasing his hair. She’d only touched one coil, and hadn’t pulled even a little. That made Donnie relax a bit more. She gestured at her own hair, and grimaced. “You’re lucky, I can’t get my hair to do _anything_ interesting. My mom had curly hair, but I just got dad’s straight hair, bleh. And everything just falls out of it, so I can’t even put clips in.”

“My cousin’s friend complains about that sometimes,” Donnie said, finding himself comfortable enough to offer that information. “She has a bunch of spells specifically for making it curl. I could get one for you, maybe…?”

“Really?” The girl asked brightly. “That’d be amazing, thanks.” Then she stuck out her hand, grinning still. “And by the way, I’m April. It’s nice to meet you. I think your hair is funny and neat, and I’m glad to be in the same house as you.”

Donnie glanced between April and her extended hand, and felt a smile spread across his face.

He took her hand and shook it once. His first school friend, one he made all on his own without his brothers or cousin. And while they’d only been talking for a few minutes, he felt like the two of them were going to get along great.

“Hey, April,” Donnie said. “I’m Donatello, but you can call me Donnie. I like your hair too, and I’m also glad we’re both Ravenclaw.” April smiled brilliantly, and the excitement of having made a friend rushed through Donnie.

Then his smile slipped a bit as he felt his hair puff right back up. And he’d _just_ finished calming it down.

April’s eyes went wide, and she started giggling. Not maliciously, but in friendly amusement. Donnie’s momentary embarrassment was swept away by that, and he found himself starting to laugh too. Admittedly, it _was_ pretty funny when his hair did this.

Maybe boarding school wouldn’t be so scary after all. He had a friend now.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i actively die a little when i get to write their friendship how it should've been done in 2012. dorky science bros with mad scientist aspirations and endless curiosity.
> 
> god they're so tiny and adorable here, my heart melted while i wrote this. augh.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it turns out it's a three for three day, because i was thinking about my favorite magic twins and their growing up.
> 
> set during the summer time, when they're all nestled back home and getting up to trouble and feelings.

 

 

Raph rubbed his eyes angrily, and ignored the concerned cheeps and hisses from his pets. He'd sent the most persistent ones away- including Spike- to go fly around outside or crawl through the house for a bit. What ones were still in his room poked their heads out from their hiding places; small and large eyes watching Raph curl shamefully up on himself.

“Go away,” He muttered at them, shoving himself deeper into the pile of blankets and clothes he’d dragged together. When a few of his bunnies started in closer, their tiny grey dust feet pattering his room’s floor, he raised his voice. “I said _go away!”_

His bunnies, and every other critter that lived in his room, retreated back to their homes.

Raph didn’t feel any better for the false privacy. He felt like a jerk for treating his pets like that. He sighed, and dropped his head back onto the blanket lump he was hiding in. Yup, that was him. A jerk who no one liked and didn’t like anyone.

His thoughts were interrupted as a flashbang _crack_ exploded across his ceiling, and his twin dropped out of thin air with a shriek.

Donnie landed flat across Raph’s bare bed, long legs and arms flopping awkwardly as he did. He groaned loudly as he sat up, audibly sore. His glasses were skewed, and he adjusted them blearily as he blinked at his surroundings. “Well,” He said in a flat tone. “This isn’t the roof.”

Raph didn’t even know how to react to that statement.

Donnie pushed his flyaway coils out of his face, and finally caught sight of Raph hiding in his pile. They stared at one another for a moment, then Donnie said, “Raph, why are you in the depression pile?”

Raph screwed up his expression, and stubbornly burrowed deeper into his closet/pile. “I’m not in the depression pile.”

“You’re literally in it right now. I’m watching you be in the depression pile as we speak.”

“Go a _way_ , Don.”

Donnie stared at him incredulously. Squinting at Raph until his eyes widened, and he said, “Oh my god, you’re crying too.”

“No I’m _not,”_ Raph spat, definitely not wiping the trace of wetness on his cheek.

Donnie gave Raph his patent _‘do you think I’m stupid? Because I’m thinking you are’_ look. Then, he hauled his skinny ass off Raph’s bed and crossed the small floor space between them. “Alright, that’s it. Shove over.”

“What- no, fuck off, Donnie,” Raph protested, even as Donnie pushed his way into the alcove that was Raph’s closet.

Donnie responded to that by shoving a pointy elbow into Raph’s face and tearing open the nest of fabric. “Nope, nope nope nope. You’re in the depression pile, so that means _I’m_ going in the depression pile.”

“Oh my god, you’re making this weird. This is weird, Donnie,” Raph grumbled, half-heartedly pushing back at Donnie's sharp bones.

“We shared a womb for nine months, I’m allowed to give you a fucking hug,” Donnie countered.

“Oh my god.”

“Shut up and shove the hell over. I’m not as small as I used to be.”

“Why are you so fucking bony?” Raph said snippily, finally relenting his fight against Donnie's intrusion.

Donnie elbowed Raph in the gut for that, worming his way into the pile in the most obnoxious manner possible. “I don’t know, why are you so fucking fat?”

“I’m not fat, its _muscle,_ asshole.”

“Sure it is. And that’s not a bit of tummy I feel there.”

Raph growled, and Donnie ignored the sound. He instead finished invading Raph’s space, and wrapped his stupidly lanky arms and legs around Raph’s much shorter ones. Raph resisted for a moment, and then let himself curl up against his brother. No one was here to see it anyways; he could look embarrassingly dependant if he wanted.

“So,” Donnie said conversationally, after a few beats of silence. He put his cheek on the top of Raph’s head, keeping his hold tight. “You wanna talk about what’s bothering you today?”

“…no,” Raph mumbled.

“But are you going to?”

“…yes.”

Donnie hummed, the feeling of it translating to Raph’s skull. “Take your time.”

Raph grimaced, the thoughts that had driven him into- alright, _yes_ he was in the depression pile. Hiding like the coward he was. A miserable, miserable coward.

“Mike’s going on a date again,” Raph muttered. “With that girl from across the way.”

“And?”

“And Leo’s got Usagi.”

“And??”

“And _Casey’s_ got- what, his fifth girlfriend in three months?”

“I’m not following you, Raph.”

“I’m sayin’-” Raph cut off, eyes stinging without his permission again. He made a frustrated sound, and shoved his face against Donnie’s bony-as-fuck collarbone.

“…what _are_ you saying,” Donnie asked quietly.

Raph sighed. “I’m saying… I got no one.”

“Well shit,” Donnie said. “I don’t have anyone either. What’s the big deal?”

Raph growled, and jerked his head to bonk Donnie’s chin. “Fuck off. You know what I mean.”

“I really don’t. Contrary to what I try to portray, I’m not actually a mind reader,” Donnie’s tone shifted, then, and he gave Raph a squeeze. “Come on, why’re you all fussed about our family getting dates and you not? You never cared about romance stuff before.”

“That’s the _issue,”_ Raph insisted, struggling to put things into words. “I _don’t._ I don’t like anyone. I’ve _never_ liked anyone! Who the hell goes fifteen years without getting a single crush even _once?”_

“…ah,” Donnie said softly.

“Like the weird magic condition wasn’t enough,” Raph went on. “I have to be even _weirder._ I look at people and I get- nothing! _Nothing!!_ Like, the only fucking person I’ve ever met that made me feel anything special was Y’Gythgba, and that was only because I wanted to know how she got so strong! I’m a _freak,_ Donnie.”

“If you’re freak, I’m one, too,” Donnie said amicably. “We are twins.”

Raph’s eyes stung hotly, and he pushed his face harder against his brother’s chest. “Shut up. _You’re_ not, you’re a fuckin’ genius. Everyone wants in on that. I’m just some asshole who no one likes and likes _no one._ God.”

“You’re being stupid again,” Donnie said, ignoring Raph’s words. “I like you, our family likes you. Hell, we actually love you, despite you being a moron sometimes.” The way he said it, it came out fond instead of insulting. “C’mon, Raph. You know we love you. No pity parties about that.”

“…that’s not the same,” Raph mumbled, the angry fire in him dying slowly. So sure, he had his family, but- “You’re _supposed_ to like other people. I barely have any friends, let alone a partner.”

“Do you _want_ a partner?” Donnie asked.

“……no,” Raph sighed, misery settling back into him. “God, there’s something wrong with me, Don. What kind of person doesn’t want love?”

“I don’t know,” Donnie said. “You? Me?”

“ _You?”_ Raph asked incredulously.

“Yeah, me. Love is really complicated, if Leo’s federal fucking issues every few weeks are anything to go by. And Casey’s. Like, I don’t have time for that. I don’t want to have to maintain relationships or worry about them. Friendships are plenty for me, and I’ve got you guys,” Donnie punctuated that statement with another squeeze. “I don’t need someone like that. Kissing and- well, _sex_ I guess, sound kind of… gross, honestly.”

Raph pulled himself out of Donnie’s hug enough to look at him, still incredulous. “Seriously?”

“It _does,_ okay?” Donnie said, a hint of embarrassment in his voice. “I just… never felt like I had to talk about that. People only ever really want to talk to me because of my brain, so the topic of intercourse has never come up, let alone the prospect. And it sounds messy, so I’d really rather not.”

Raph’s mind struggled to wrap around the fact that Donnie had been feeling similarly this whole time, and he’d never said anything at all. “…how come you never told me about that before?”

Donnie shrugged. “Like I said, I never felt like I had to. Do you _want_ me to talk to you about that sort of thing?”

Raph stared at his twin, floored by how nonchalant Donnie was being about lacking a primary function in pretty much every human being ever. Like it wasn’t a big deal that neither of them wanted to get with anyone; like it wasn’t weird or strange at all.

“Kind of?” Raph said tentatively.

Donnie nodded once. “Then sure, I will. Where do you want me to start?”

Raph thought for a moment, trying to narrow down all his questions. He settled with the easiest one. “When did you… when did you know?”

Donnie adjusted their positions before beginning, drawing Raph properly back into the depression pile with him. “I think it was somewhere around the time Leo had his second breakup with Usagi, and I looked at his gross teary face and thought ‘ _now that, I do not want to experience’…”_

 

 

 

Raph felt a lot less alone by the time Donnie finished answering questions. They didn’t really get any new conclusion to why they didn’t feel like dating anyone, just shared mutual feelings about the whole matter.

By the end of it- and it’d been a long while since they started talking, Raph’s throat felt kind of scratchy from use- he only had one question left.

“Why were you trying to get on the roof anyways?” Raph asked, well and truly snuggled into the not-so-depressed pile with his twin.

“I had a bet with Leo,” Donnie replied. “I have probably also very sufficiently lost that bet now, oh well.”

“What sort of bet?”

“Who could apparate before the other to the rooftop.”

Raph furrowed his brows for a moment, suddenly realizing that his brother had in fact apparated into his room hours before. He’d just been too busy being a sadsack to really notice. “Wait, you don’t know how to do that yet. We’re not even legally _allowed_ to do that yet. How the fuck did you two figure out how to apparate without classes?”

“Karai’s coaching us,” Donnie said simply, summing up the whole situation in three words they used far too often in their home.

“Ah.”

“Actually, if I ended up in your room, I kind of wonder where Leo went.”

“…do we have to go look for him just yet?”

“Hmmm… nah. He’ll be fine.”

“Cool.”

 

 

 

Leo glanced around the tree he’d landed in. Birds took flight noisily, squawking indignantly as they did for his intrusion. There wasn’t a building in sight for miles, and the breeze made his extremely tall tree sway worryingly.

Leo scratched the side of his head, frowning at his surroundings of deep wood.

“Well," He said to himself. "This isn’t the roof.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leo is fine don't worry. papa hamato goes hunting for him later and gets him home safe and sound. he and donnie are very, very grounded, and so is karai.
> 
> also: personal HC's about human raph, i feel like he'd be the type to hold onto some extra weight until he got through puberty. not overly so, but enough he's just bigger than the other kids in a lot of senses. human donnie on the other hand is a fuckin toothpick until he's done growing too, and they look like polar opposites until hormones stop doing the tango with their bodies.
> 
> also also: depression is something i'll probably touch on for the twins here and there through the older years fics. nothing terribly serious, but most teenagers go through depression of some degree at one point or another. the twins' solution to really bad moments is the Depression Pile™, a bunch of blankets and shit in raph's closet, or a clothes pile in donnie's bedroom that no one dares to touch. (he has a system dammnit)
> 
> also also also: i am now officially adding the asexuality spectrum tag to things, since these two and a few others coast around that sexuality category. this was just the beginning of a couple other scenes i want to play with, regarding this subject. so make sure you look for it. (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have feels about tiny pre-hogwarts mikey, and they emerged here.

 

 

Mikey waved hard enough his arms felt like they’d fly off. Hard as his legs were pumping, hard as his feet were hitting the stone floor as he ran alongside the train. Leo was leaned out the window, waving back just as fast, just as hard, smiling as he was taken off into the distance.

Mikey came to a stop at the end of the platform, panting and smiling. Donnie and Raph arrived next to him a heartbeat later, their own waving and running now done as Leo’s train got further away. For the next few months, it’d just be them. No big brother; just the littlest brother and the twins.

Mikey grinned, and pushed away the small twinge in his chest about Leo having to leave. It’d be great! Without Leo around to be- kind of- a voice of reason, they could do _anything._

Their father called after them, and Mikey gave one last wave to the train as he turned away from it.

It was a good year. Basically like all the other years they’d had before, just… without Leo. Sometimes it would be lopsided, having three instead of four, but that never stuck for long. Too much to do, too much to see, too many adventures to have together.

Also school, which was never fun and entirely boring. Desks, blah, stern teachers, double blah, Mikey and Raph not being allowed to bring pets they found in the fields into class, _triple_ blah. Homework and school friends kept them all busy during the day, but after that they’d run back to the floo powder terminal and go home. Travelling to the other side of the city and emerging in an only slightly run down house they called home.

Without Leo around, Mikey’s only other older brothers got into _way_ more trouble. And Mikey did too, by association. No one to tell them not to nick potions from the shopkeeps to mix and experiment with at home, no one to tell them not to invite field and forest creatures into the house for games, and no one to tell Mikey he had to comb his hair properly or wash his hands.

Well, their dad did, but there were three of them and one of him. He couldn’t be _everywhere_ at once, as much as it felt like he was.

And then Leo came back, filling up the hole Mikey hadn’t really noticed beyond sometimes feeling a little lonely, and the three of them became four again. Summer went like it always did; adventures and misadventures in the woods and city alike. Except Leo had a wand now and there was just _so much_ they could do with that. They just had to convince/blackmail/beg/egg Leo on until he did.

Mikey couldn’t wait to get his wand. Couldn’t wait to have a way to properly channel the sparky-sparky-sparking feeling he sometimes got in his fingers; a way to get it out and have something happen on purpose for once, instead of him turning the jelly into custard on accident for the fifth time in a row.

And then summer was over, and Leo had to leave again. This time, he took Donnie and Raph with him.

Mikey ran the same length of platform a second time, waving his hands and pounding his feet with just as much enthusiasm as last time. His brothers all leaned out the window, waving and hollering back at Mikey as they went.

Then the train was gone, and Mikey was alone on the platform.

He wiped his nose, sniffling because of a summer-fall cold he had. Not one bad enough for magical medicine, but bad enough it made his nose run.

It was definitely only because of his cold that it was running. Definitely. Same for his eyes feeling kind of stingy.

His father called him back to go home, and Mikey turned away from the tracks with less contentedness than he had last year.

 

 

 

The house was a lot quieter without his brothers, Mikey noticed that right away.

He fixed that by turning up music and releasing Raph’s menagerie of pets from his room. Chiming lights fluttered around Mikey’s head as he went about his day, and lithe, hot little bodies wound their way around his legs as he walked. He stuck plants he knew the will-o-wisp’s liked to eat into his hair, and dropped bits of his sandwich onto the floor for the salamanders to lick up.

Mikey spent his first day at home, truly alone for probably first time ever, while his father went to run his dojo. There were still another few days until primary school started, and Mikey had some time to kill until then.

He finished his sandwich, and went to see if Donnie or Leo had left anything interesting out for him to read or watch. There wasn’t much- just head-mushing muggle science magazines in Donnie’s room, and ancient looking sci-fi comics that didn’t move in Leo’s.

The sun went down, and his first day without any of his brothers around was over.

Mikey let the will-o-wisps sit in his hair, softly glowing and casting shadows from there, and the salamanders perch on his lap and shoulders. The two sources of tinkling purrs and rumbles were almost enough to make him feel less alone.

Mikey told himself to buck up, and take advantage of this while he could.

He went to school, bragged about having a big empty house all to himself to play in- something other kids talked about, their own siblings gone to boarding schools as well- and invited friends over now and then to fill the spaces his brothers had left. Maybe his father knew Mikey felt a little lonely, because he let Mikey bring friends home sometimes even without asking.

Mikey spent a lot of his free time wandering. There were lots of nooks and crannies to explore in his neighborhood; houses all packed together around each other like sardines and filled to the brim with wizard families. Some people living in his neighborhood looked like Mikey, fluffy haired and dark skinned. Others didn’t, but most of those were good sorts. With pitch black hair and narrow eyes, or skin so pale it burned constantly in the sun, or a hundred other kinds of people.

A couple though, from further up the way from Mikey’s home, from where the houses turned from sardines to sparsely placed cherries on a Sunday, were meaner and tended to cause trouble. Some kids avoided them, some befriended them, and some tried to fend them off.

Mikey’s brothers and he had always been the ones to fend them off. Telling them to go back to their own haunts and leave theirs to them. Sometimes fighting was involved, and Mikey had always been excited for a quick scuffle like that. No one was better than him and his brothers. No one.

But Mikey was alone now, just himself and his stubbornness.

He still stood up against them. Squaring his shoulders and yelling at them to piss off, and leave alone the kids that were years younger than them all.

He got a punch in the chest for that, but Mikey gave back as good as he got. He made red come out of one pale nose, and kicked dirt into the blue eyes of another. They had numbers, but Mikey spent hours with his brothers and father learning techniques no one but their family could know.  He knew how to fight better than any of them.

But, they did have numbers, and Mikey was one kid against five.

Mikey hit the wall hard enough he lost air in his lungs, and spat on the ground after the kids who were finally moving on from their brawl. It’d only lasted a few seconds, but Mikey’s ribs hurt and someone had stomped on his foot hard enough it was bruising.

Mikey sniffled, again just because he was still fighting that cold of his, not because he was crying a little, and dusted himself off.

He went home, curled up in Raph’s room with all his brother’s pets, and didn’t tell his dad anything.

 

 

 

Mikey wrote to his brothers every day, just like he had with Leo when he’d first left for school. He wrote three letters every day, one for each brother, and sent them all together as soon as he could afford to buy a currier owl’s service. Sometimes that would take a few days, and he’d send big bunches of letters all at once. He got unimpressed looks from the owls he used when he did that, and would offer them bites of ham sandwich as apology.

He’d get cheery and informative letters from Leo, slightly nonsensical and distracted sounding ones from Donnie, and curt and short ones from Raph. Mikey put all of them in his desk drawer, already crowded with ones from Leo last year. The letters made him feel better, and hearing about all the new things his brothers were learning were something he couldn’t wait to also experience.

Maybe he was a little jealous, hearing about their school life, about April and Casey and other kids his brothers had befriended, but Mikey didn’t put any of that into his letters. He sent drawings and candies and told his brothers he was doing great; that the house was _way_ roomier without them, that he was taking good care of Raph’s pets, and that he’d had five sleepovers in the past two weeks and it’d be amazing.

He didn’t mention the fact that he kept getting in fights with kids from up the way, or that he got bruises almost all the time now, or that he’d started finding nasty things written on his school books he couldn’t wash off. Those things all sucked, but he was doing fine! He was one year away from getting his wand and joining his brothers at Hogwarts; he was old enough to handle all that on his own.

The letters from his brothers were all regular, until they weren’t.

Donnie’s letters went- weird. Sometimes branching off into symbols Mikey couldn’t make heads or tails of, sometimes rambles about nothing Mikey had asked after in his last letter. They all started smelling like things Mikey couldn’t place, but could taste on the back of his tongue whenever he sniffed them. And then they stopped completely, and Mikey didn’t get an answer why.

Raph’s turned to very short, very distracted letters, and then stopped, too. The last one Mikey got from him was him talking about how he was angry with Donnie, code for _worried_ in Raphese, and then squat. The only one was still writing was Leo, and Leo’s letters had nothing to do with whatever Raph and Donnie were dealing with.

Mikey felt like something was wrong with Donnie, but at the same time… he wondered if it was just because Donnie had new friends. New schoolwork and new adventures. Maybe he was too busy to write, and Mikey was just worrying about nothing. If Leo wasn’t worried, than maybe there wasn’t actually anything happening, and his twin older brothers were just being big drama queens.

So Mikey set the concerns to the side, and went wandering for longer hours during the afternoons and evenings. He crawled into places where city creatures lived and shared snacks and stories with them. He scaled to the tops of fences and balanced them as long as he could, going whole blocks without touching the ground. He talked to his friends and did his homework and tried not to be a worrywart.

Then a wizard appeared on his house’s step in the middle of the night, and told Mikey’s dad that something had happened. Something big.

Mikey, who’d been standing in the hallway as his father talked to the newcomer, rubbed his eyes sleepily as he tried to figure out what was going on. Then, his father was kneeling in front of him, and telling Mikey in a calm and serious voice that he was going to go to uncle Saki’s for the night.

“Wha’s going on?” Mikey mumbled, half asleep and kind of scared.

“Your brothers… have gotten into some trouble. I have to go check on them.”

Mikey bit his lip. “Is it ‘bout Donnie?”

His father stilled, and gave him a look. “Michelangelo, how did you know it was about Donatello?”

Mikey shuffled his feet. He’d known something felt wrong, and he hadn’t said anything. “Donnie’s letters went all weird a couple weeks ago. Didn’t say nothin’ ‘cause I didn’t think it was important. Just thought he forgot me, is all. I’m sorry.”

His father brushed some of Mikey’s curls out of his face, and pulled him into a gentle hug. “Your brothers would never forget you, Michelangelo. This was something else entirely.”

“I’m sorry,” Mikey whispered again into his dad’s shoulder. “I should’ve said something.”

His father squeezed him tight, and kissed the side of Mikey’s head. “It’s not your fault, there were other forces at work and you did not know. Now, go pack a night bag. I’ll spell my brother that you’re coming.”

“Is Donnie okay?” Mikey asked as his dad pulled away.

His father’s smile was tired, but there. “Donatello will be fine, Michelangelo. I promise he will be. Now go, I have to go to Hogwarts soon as I can.”

Mikey nodded, and ran to shove his pillow and favorite stuffies into his backpack. His uncle Saki was waiting outside the hearth when Mikey flooed into his home, dressed in his big soft night coat and holding cups of hot chocolate for them both.

Mikey settled into the crook of his scarred uncle’s side, on the couch and with a proper fire in the hearth, and tried to not worry too much about his big brothers. The chocolate tasted sweetly cloying on his tongue, and warmed up most of the chilly fear settled in his guts.

His uncle’s deep voice told him that he should try to sleep, that they’d be able to go back to his home tomorrow morning. Mikey didn’t really want to go back to his too-big, too-empty house. He wanted to go to his brothers.

Mikey fell asleep soon after he finished his drink, and dreamt about bright lights and his brothers’ voices.

 

 

 

Donnie was fine, as off and befuddled he was for a few weeks after. Mikey got to see him almost the day after they got the news of the incident he’d caused; running into the sick room of the castle he barely noticed he was in.

Donnie was in a bed with Raph, Leo and two kids Mikey didn’t know sitting on it as well. Mikey caused a lot of surprised shouting and dismayed flailing as he threw himself into the pile. He ignored all of that, and crawled his way up to his brother to hug him tight.

Donnie was pale, and his hair was _everywhere_ , and he was a might too hot to be healthy. But, even with the weird marking on his forehead, and the way he seemed disconnected with reality, it was _Donnie,_ and Donnie was okay.

Mikey clung to all his brothers until their father literally pried him from the pile. The only thing that made that okay was because there were only a few weeks left before school ended, and his brother came home. When _all_ of Mikey’s brothers would come home.

Mikey set all the beds in his brothers’ rooms- because he’d messed them all up on and off since they’d been gone, with single person sleepovers and games for just him- and even put flowers in Donnie’s. Carefully placed all his books- god, so many books- back on their shelves and shoved all his brother’s clothes into the closet. Made sure everything was as neat as a ten year old could manage, sat down, and waited breathlessly for his brothers to come back.

He got into a few more fights before then. Everyone in the neighborhood, and all the ones surrounding it, were getting antsy at the season change. Other kids were coming home, so that meant everything was going to go back to how it was during the summer. Which meant Mikey wouldn’t be on his lonesome much longer, and anyone who bothered him would have his brothers to contend with. Same went for every other kid who’d had their older siblings gone. Easy target season was over.

Mikey kicked and punched in equal amounts to the ones aimed at him. He was still outnumbered though, and got a dark shiner for it.

When his brothers got off the train, and ran forwards to hug him, Raph’s expression did a one-eighty at the sight of it. Changing from elated relief to obvious fury.

“Who did that?” He asked immediately. He grabbed Mikey’s shoulders, and gave him a stern look. “Mikey, _who did that?”_

Mikey squirmed, hearing the same words come from his brother that’d come from their father not half an hour ago. “It’s nothing, I just ran into a door.”

“A door,” Donnie said in a flat tone. “Mikey, no door could do that. That’s a bad lie, even for you.”

“I tell excellent lies,” Mikey defended.

“Not when you’re hiding something from _us,”_ Leo pointed out, looking steadily angrier. He was always slow to really lose it, but when it came to their family…

“He said the same thing to me,” Karai added, their cousin slinking out from the crowd to come and tower over them all. Darn her growth spurt for that. She gave Mikey the same irritated look she’d had earlier, when they all met up at the station. “And I didn’t believe him for a second. So what are we going to do about it?”

“ _Guuuyyys,”_ Mikey groaned, completely ignored. “C’mon, it was just a little fight! You don’t have to do this!”

“I think we do,” Donnie said in a grave tone, drawing himself up despite the paleness that still clung to him. “Mikey, either you tell us, or we find out ourselves.”

Mikey looked around, at his cousin, at his brothers, and at his brothers’ friends who were coming over to join the group. He tried to find some way to diffuse the situation and came up with nothing.

He made a frustrated sound, and threw his hands up. “Fine, fine! It was a bunch of jerks from up the way, and I gave ‘em good as I got. That’s literally all there is to it.”

“Not yet it’s not,” Raph growled, whose statement was echoed by his twin’s hum of agreement, and Leo and Karai’s curt nods.

Casey and April exchanged glances behind Mikey’s wall of over-protective family members. The two of them shrugged. “Eh, I’ve got some time until my dad’ll really want me home,” Casey said. “I’m down for whatever.”

“I’m sure dad will let me join in,” April added. “As long as we don’t mention the fact that this is probably going to be violent.”

Mikey sighed dramatically. “Oh. My god. You’re all _so_ overreacting right now.”

But, he didn’t exactly try to stop them, when Casey drew a Quidditch bat from his trunk, and off they all went with only a quick goodbye to their collective parents. Mikey’s father and uncle gave one another a look that communicated just how likely it was they knew _exactly_ what their kids were up to, and just sighed as the rag-tag group disappeared into the flooway.

Something like forty-five minutes later, Mikey’s family found the guys that’d been bothering him all year, and managed to draw the full story out of Mikey on the way.

It was pretty satisfying, getting into a massive wizardling brawl, and then hightailing it before any adults could get involved. Mikey’s eye hurt a lot less, once he gave one right back to the kid that’d given the first bruising. Not to mention watching his brothers- who he’d missed _so_ much- terrify the hell out of everyone. Mostly because they also had Karai with them- who even _Mikey_ was a little afraid of- and because Donnie opened his mouth and said _something_ that echoed through the alleyway, and blew up a bunch of glass bottles nearby.

That was new, and really fucking cool, and made Donnie swoon all over the place; which resulted in him being carried home on Raph’s back and grumbling the whole way.

(“Guys, I can walk, I’m _fine.”_

“No you’re not,” Raph said sternly.

Donnie grumbled louder. “I can walk on my own, let me down already.”

“Nope,” Raph said again.

Donnie turned to their brother. “Leo, make him put me down.”

Leo barely acknowledged Donnie. “Raph, don’t you dare let his feet touch the ground.”

“Like I would’ve.”

“Oh my _god,_ guys.”

Karai laughed in time with Mikey, and it set off the rest of their group. Donnie moaned and grumbled all the louder for that.)

By the time they got home, rumpled and dirty from alleyway scuffling, they found that Yoshi had brought all the other parents, plus Casey’s sister, back with him for tea. Mr. O’Neil made a concerned squeak when he saw April’s scorched hair, and Mr. Jones just gave his son a vaguely frustrated look for Casey’s bloody nose. Uncle Saki asked if Karai had won the fight, only for Mikey’s father to admonish him for encouraging their behavior. Uncle Saki responded that Yoshi hadn’t exactly tried to stop them, and that just started a bicker between them as everyone filed in to find a seat at the table.

Mikey got squished in between Leo and Donnie, had to reach all the way across the table to grab the jam because no one would pass it, had nearly _shout_ to be heard over everyone around him, and could barely breathe with how many kids and adults were in the room.

It was the best thing he’d experienced all year.

And then a couple months later, he got his very own _wand,_ and _that_ led to a hundred new best things to experience.

He also set some of the kitchen on fire, but hey, Leo and Donnie and Raph were right there to help him put it out and hide the evidence, so it was all good.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> these four and co. are all fucking nightmares and their parents will be grey at the temple before they're even in their twenties.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more gay wizards, specifically the bi-furious and the lesbean.

 

 

Karai wasn’t sure how she got herself into these things. She wanted to blame her relation to her cousins, but the whole ‘not related by blood’ thing put a wrench in that excuse for her stupidity.

Shini sighed in her sleep, and curled a bit closer to Karai in the bed they were sharing. There’d only been so much space to go around in her cousins’ home for their group sleepover, and Karai had impulsively agreed to share the twin-sized bed with her best friend.

Shini’s head knocked against Karai’s shoulder, her friend’s sleepy breathing ghosting over Karai’s thin night shirt and onto her cheek.

Karai could feel her cheeks getting hotter the closer Shini snuggled up with her. She was thankful that at least the lights were all off, and no one could see how red she’d gotten.

Karai stayed totally still as Shini kept sleeping- _right! on! her shoulder!!-_ and tried to figure out how she could possibly fall asleep in a position like this.

 

 

Shini kept her eyes shut, mimicking sleeping breath rate, and prayed her friend wouldn’t figure out she was awake.

Still, so worth the risk, getting to snuggle up close in a way she rarely got to with Karai. Perhaps she felt a bit guilty for taking advantage of Karai’s perception of their platonicness, but such was how crushes went.

And besides, Shini was opportunistic in nature, and her lovely friend had presented her with the _perfect_ opportunity. Even if it meant she’d have to feign innocence the moment they got up in the morning.

Shini sighed again, and enjoyed being so close to Karai while she could. Liking a straight girl was hard, it was hard and so few understood.

 

 

Donnie sipped his coffee the next morning, watching Shini pretend to not know a thing about why Karai had such big bags under her eyes, and the two of them dance around the obvious affection they had for one another.

Internally, he sighed, and wondered how his cousin and her best friend were so blind to their mutuality. And, why anyone would want to get involved with something like crushes at all.

He said nothing, sipped his coffee, and continued to let Karai and Shini pretend they didn’t make eyes at one another _constantly._ They’d figure it out. Eventually.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in a turn of events that surprises no one: shini likes karai too and neither of them will admit their feelings.
> 
> donnie is so tired of his cousin's nonsense. so tired.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> casey was raised in the muggle world, sooooo.... there's some culture clashes here and there. first year for casey and raph, go!

Casey opened his mouth, excited to have finally gotten his hands on some candy from outside of school grounds, tipped his head back to pour the whole packet of skittles into his mouth-

-and got a face full of shrieking, squawking birds, flying out of the packet.

Casey shrieked right back as the swarm of birds flew out and around him, dropping the skittle packet and swatting at the birds.

“Oh, you got a bird batch? Cool,” Was Raph’s comment, apparently not feeling the need to get off his bed and help, even though Casey was being _assaulted by birds._

Casey spluttered and swatted, feathers in his mouth and hair and _augh everywhere-_ and managed to get out, “What hell- what the hell is a _bird batch?!”_

“When a packet of birdie-beans turns out to be birds, duh.”

“The _fuck?”_

“They’re a rip-off brand of Botts’ beans, and I repeat: beans turn into birds. It’s pretty basic candy-magic gimmick.”

Casey, finally free of the tornado of small multicolored birds, turned a glare on his friend. Raph, laid upside down on his bed with his head over the edge, gave him a bland look.

Casey, for lack of better choices, pointed viciously at the abandoned packet on the floor. “I thought those were skittles, I was supposed to get _skittles._ Who the hell would want _birds_ instead of candy?? What even _for??_ ”

“I dunno, to play with? Keep as pets? I had them sometimes when I was littler,” Raph said, still unhelpful. “There’s only a bird batch every one thousand or something packets, so count yourself lucky.”

Casey felt the little demon birds- which actually resembled budgies, except skittle colored- starting to land on his robes and head. He shook his shoulders once, but the birds barely moved. They started cheeping in his ears, and pulling at his shaggy black hair.

“But,” Casey said, at a loss as to what the actual fuck wizards were thinking when they made bird-beans. “I didn’t want birds, I wanted candy.”

“Well, a kid in my neighborhood said his brother ate one, one time, and _he_ said they tasted like candy if you eat ‘em quick enough.”

A budgie-from-hell cheeped extra loud in Casey’s ear, and then nibbled the edge of it. Casey groaned, and tried to shoo the birds off of him. Without much success.

Stupid wizards, stupid birds.

“I just wanted some goddamn candy,” He muttered grumpily, because he’d had to give an older Gryffindor student all his week’s pocket money for just that one packet.

“Well,” Raph said, as the most unhelpful friend in _existence._ “At least you got new pets now.”

“I wanted _candy.”_

“But _birds.”_

Casey snatched a tiny bird off his shoulder, and tossed it at Raph. The little thing caught itself midair, screeching angrily. “If you like them so much, _keep ‘em.”_

Raph held out his hand, and the bird landed on it obediently like he was Snow White or something, despite being ten shades darker than the classic fairy tale princess. “You sure?” He said, petting the bird gentle and slow because he basically _was_ Snow White when it came to small animals. “They only stick around for a few weeks, and they’re a lot of fun while they exist.”

“I’m sure,” Casey said with a huff, sitting down on his bed to maybe-sort-of sulk about his ruined candy.

Raph set the bird on his chest, and let the other ones start collecting on his stomach right after. Raph shrugged awkwardly, mostly because of the angle he was laying in. “Suit yourself.”

Casey huffed again. He’d just owl his sister and get her to send him normal candy. Birdie-beans? No thanks. He’d stick to skittles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> based on that iconic vine comp somewhere on tumblr lmao.
> 
> raph likes small animals too much and casey just wants something sweet to eat.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i couldn't stop laughing when i thought of this.
> 
> set during the great griffin crisis, but like, a little while afterwards.

Casey watched Raph coo and cuddle his latest animal companion- the lone miniature griffin he’d been allowed to keep- and snorted. They were in the Gryffindor common room, taking advantage of study time before bed, and Raph hadn’t actually studied yet because of his tiny familiar’s demands for attention.

“You know, I thought it when we first met, and I think it now,” He flicked a finger pistol at his best friend. “You. Are basically Snow White.”

Raph paused mid stroke of Spike’s head crest, and gave Casey a sideways look. “Huh?”

“Snow White. You and animals, you’re basically Snow White with ‘em.”

Raph blinked at him incredulously. “Uh. I’m black. Did you hit your head when I wasn’t looking?”

“No not snow white like that, I mean _Snow White,”_ Casey said empathetically. Raph continued looking at him like he’d grown a second head. Casey turned to Donnie for help, who was sitting beside Raph on their side of the study desk. “Don, help me out here. He’s basically Snow White, am I right?”

Donnie came up from whatever long-winded text he was studying that evening, and squinted at Casey. “…I leave reality for ten minutes, and I come back to you thinking my brother is white.”

Casey slapped his hands onto the table. “I don’t! That’s not what I’m trying to say!”

Raph and Donnie traded their signature twin look, which essentially conveyed how mutually done they were in that moment in time.

“He’s _your_ best friend,” Donnie said. “You picked him up and kept him.”

“I know,” Raph replied. “I don’t know if that was a mistake or not.”

 _“Guys,”_ Casey maybe sort of whined. “Quit messin’ with me. Do you agree or not?”

Raph looked at Casey. “Is that a trick question?”

Donnie seemed thoughtful. “Better yet, is that considered racist?”

Casey spluttered.

“I’m not being _racist!”_

Donnie and Raph hummed doubtfully, and Casey wondered why he hung out with such assholes.

“Who’s not being racist?” April asked, approaching their table with Leo in tow. Perks of being friends with a Hufflepuff, Leo could always get a hold of good study time snacks even after dinner hours. He and April had gone to get some for them all.

“ _Me,”_ Casey exclaimed.

“That stands-” “-to be proven.”

Leo raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you got them doing the twin-speak thing? Wow, you must’ve really pissed them off.”

“Is he being a moron?” April asked the twins seriously.

“Casey called Raph snow white,” Donnie explained.

“Which I’m _not,”_ Raph added.

April turned a scolding look on Casey. “Casey, you’re being a moron.”

“We’re black,” Leo said in a confused tone. “Why would you even?”

Casey threw his hands up in the air. “Oh my god- does _no one_ know about Disney around here?”

 _“Who?”_ Was the response from his friend group as a whole.

“Fucking wizards,” Casey said with vitriol, and slouched into his chair.

“Fucking? Wizards? Someone sneak in porn again?” Mikey asked, popping out of thin air and snatching a biscuit off of Leo’s tray. “Lemme see; that shit’s hilarious.”

Leo gave Mikey a tired look. “How did you even get in here? We didn’t get a chance to tell you the weekly password.”

“Pssh, passwords are for losers. I came in through the window. Kind of. What are we talking about?”

“The window is twelve stories up,” Leo said in an even more tired tone.

“That’s quitter talk right there.”

“Casey is being racist,” Donnie explained for Mikey.

Mikey turned a crumb covered, faux offended look on Casey. “ _Whaaaat?_ That’s kinda really rude, Casey. You should know better.”

“He really should,” Raph and Donnie agreed simultaneously.

“I’m _not!”_ Casey defended loudly. “I just thought he’s basically a wizard Snow White!”

Mikey shoved the rest of his biscuit in his mouth, and spoke while he chewed. “Wow, that’s like, the opposite of the color spectrum from us. You hit your head when Raph wasn’t looking?”

“That’s what I said,” Raph said, as Donnie nodded in confirmation.

Leo and April shook their heads, looking disappointed in Casey.

“We expected better of you, Casey. My brother _is_ your best friend, after all.”

“Mhm, I thought so too. I really thought you were a nice guy.”

“You’re pretty wild to hang with,” Mikey said, reaching for another biscuit and being fended off by Leo. “but being a dick like that is a little over the line.”

Casey knew his cheeks were ruddy and his temper snapped. “It’s just a FUCKING MOVIE CHARACTER!!”

That got him a round of unimpressed looks.

“Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Raph asked, and Casey threw his homework into the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> casey is suffering.
> 
> don't worry, they sort it out later, mostly because he drags them all over to his flat during the summer and forces them to watch ten disney films in a row. general consensus: raph is indeed like snow white, and the joke is finally gotten.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> set in donnie and raph's first year, some action for leo, giving him a chance to be the hero for a moment; a continuation of donnie's adventures with dubious magic.
> 
> donnie boy, why do you do these things.

“Mr. Hamato,” Leo’s head of house said seriously. “You don’t have to do this.”

Leo kept his grip on his wand tight and his grip on his broom even tighter.

“I’m really, really, _really_ sorry,” He said. “But I kind of have to.”

Murmurs from the crowd gathered behind them rose; students and adults alike nervously watching the showdown. A drip of sweat went down Leo’s neck, and he felt the air from the open doors in front of him cool it.

“The Aurors are on their way,” His teacher said. Her voice was calm, but Leo knew the look of someone who was panicking well enough he could tell she was doing just that, just by her eyes. “They’ll get your brothers and their friends, you need to stay inside until the all clear is given and our intruder is caught-”

“They won’t make it in time!” Leo snapped, and then winced. He was _so_ getting expelled, doubly for being rude on top of blatantly defying the teacher’s word. “I have to go. They’re- they’re in danger and I can’t just _wait around_ for help to show up!”

“Young man, I am giving you one last chance to put down your broom and wand. This is a job for the professionals, not a school child!”

Leo thought of his brothers, Raph, Donnie- of their friends, Casey, April- and of the unknown intruder on the school grounds, the one that had broken ages old wards to enter it without permission, and followed Leo’s little brothers into the Forbidden Forest to do _god knew what_ to them.

And, he thought of how Donnie wasn’t right in the head, that something had its claws in him, and how Leo hadn’t noticed at all until his wicker thin brother broke a window and jumped out from the third story library. He thought of how Raph had somewhat known, but hadn’t confided in Leo, how April had been trying to fix things on her own and told no one- and how she and Casey had fearlessly followed Raph into the woods to get Donnie back.

And how Leo had been stuck, left behind, and hadn’t been there for his brothers when they were in trouble.

He raised his wand.

“Professor Sprout,” He said. The tip of his wand lit up. “I’m sorry, but my family comes first.”

He would really have to send a thank you note to Karai, whenever this horrible thing got done and he was sure he wasn’t going to die. Her and their uncle’s lessons really paid off.

After all, who would have thought a second year student already knew up to forth year and beyond dueling spells? Not his house head, that’s for sure.

Startled gasps and cries followed Leo’s barrage of spells, coming from the onlookers, and he ignored them. His professor blocked his attacks, but the brilliant lights and highly distracting flame throwing gave him all the time he needed.

Leo mounted his broom, and shot off through the smoke and blaze.

He heard people yelling after him as he flew, willing his broom to soar higher and faster than he ever had- so none of the spells following him would have a chance to hit. He swerved and dodged, avoiding what few were aimed high enough to nearly get him. In the back of his panicking, guilty mind- Leo briefly thought it felt a little like Quidditch with his brothers. They did tend to get a little rowdy when they played, and none of them were above sneak attacks and tricks.

Leo circled the castle, pushing his thrift bought broom to fly even faster. He knew the moment he let up, a teacher on their own broom may catch up to him. The wind whistled blaringly in his ears, and his eyes watered as he dove.

The Forbidden Forest loomed before him, and despite the stomach curdling fear of entering its depths, Leo charged in full speed.

He had to get to his brothers, had to make up for not noticing how much trouble they’d gotten themselves into, and not even an ancient forest of craft, creatures, and magic was going to get in his way.

He ignored the scrapes and clawing at his robes as he flew; letting the low hanging branches leave as many marks as it took. It was nearly pitch inside the canopy, but Leo had flown in true darkness before, courtesy of one family camping trip to the mountains. He could handle this, even if the full moon’s light was barely enough to see what was in front of him.

He heard screeches and unearthly sounds rise up as he flew, the sounds following his progress. Leo didn’t dare look towards anything that he past- terrified it would be something that could eat him in two bites.

Distantly, he heard Donnie scream.

Leo swerved towards it, biting down on a cry as a branch raked across his cheek. He felt stinging warmth come from the cut, but didn’t dare slow down.

The clearing came into view abruptly- the trees suddenly ending and open space replacing them. The center of the circular field was lit up by a complicated spell design, etched straight into the earth and shining brightly; something writhing and growing in the very middle. It made Leo’s vision nearly blur and sent a ringing down his spine and through his skull.

A man was near the circle. A man Leo had never seen, ever, in the school. The intruder, then.

The man was holding Donnie off the ground by his neck.

Leo dove, furious and acting on his gut instinct to protect his little brother.

His boot met the side of the man’s head, and sent him sprawling. Donnie landed with a thump on the ground, his head lolling sideways and a string of indecipherable words coming from his throat.

Leo hovered over his brother, between him and the man, and took out his wand. Indignant and protective anger rose up in him, and he shouted out, “No one! Touches! _My brothers!”_

Donnie’s pale pink eyes slid up towards Leo- which sent an unnerved bolt of fear through Leo’s heart. They were supposed to be deep red, not that horrifying washed out pink.

His brother’s lips were cracked, red seeping at the corners, and it only made the bizarre irises that much scarier to see. Donnie’s lips parted, and another stream of incomprehensible words came out. He seemed to be staring more at the sky than at Leo, now.

Leo started to question Donnie what was going on- what was _happening_ to him, what was happening with the giant spell circle and terrifying _thing_ growing in it- but his attention snapped back to the intruder as he started moving. Leo got his wand ready, and brought an incredibly destructive fire spell to his lips.

The man had barely rightened himself, holding the side of his skull, when Raph and Casey came charging into the clearing. Pursued by giant spiders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leo is such a hufflepuff at his base character elements, and no one can tell me otherwise.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and finally, i rewind to the first point Donnie fully decided to do what the Book wanted. set during his first year, obviously.

The whispers took proper form somewhere a week after Donnie found the Book.

In his sleep, he’d started to… see things. Hear things. The dreams got clearer with each passing night, until…

He met it.

Or, a piece of it, at least.

Just the smallest piece of it’s presence, stored inside the book. The vast majority of itself was still sealed away, trapped and caged by the spells holding it captive.

Donnie woke up each morning, not really remembering what he’d been dreaming about. Just that it was important; desperately so.

And each night, as he fell asleep- the Book on his side table, and then eventually, right beside his pillow- he’d remember.

_Please._

_Come to us._

The half-moon, shining high in the night sky, was the perfect point of light and dark balance for it to reach out to him. To whisper and sing softly, for him to please, _please_ follow it’s voice.

Follow it into the Forbidden Forest.

A distant part of Donnie said this was a bad idea, but the gently swelling voices in the Book’s pages persuaded him anyways. He’d been getting to know it slowly over the week, listening to it’s songs and stories without really noticing, and now…

He felt he could trust it. The Book’s internal presence was so warm, so comforting. It washed away the fear of being caught by the hall monitor, the groundskeeper, or by anything that lurked in the forest.

With the Book open in his arms, light as anything, Donnie ventured out of his dorm room with silent steps and a fearless heart.

It guided him with it’s whispers, through the hallways of Hogwarts and out the heavy doors to the fields outside. It’s songs led him without interruption, keeping him out of sight from the ghosts and watchful teachers in his school. Under the half-moon’s light, with little cloud cover at all, Donnie’s cloak dampened in the nighttime dew as he walked across the grassy fields.

“Where are we going?” He asked aloud, as he stood on the very edges of the forest. “I know you said it would be safe, but… I’ve studied the fauna and flora of Hogwarts’ forest. There’s a lot of dangerous creatures in there.”

The Book’s presence in his head increased, covering his thoughts a little more. Like a blanket, warm and soothing.

“…if you’re sure.”

It hummed happily, singing again as he started walking into the underbrush.

The forest was… not as terrifying as he thought it might’ve been.

If anything… it was peaceful, walking under the thick canopy. The sounds of nightlife were alive, chatters and calls from unseen creatures above and below the trees’ branches. Donnie picked his way carefully through the bushes, his cloak and robes catching on brush as he struggled to follow the Book’s directions.

Even though he felt scratches be raked across his legs and knees, he still managed to enjoy the forest around him.

“…this is… incredible,” He whispered to the Book, putting a hand on the huge tree trunk beside him. It seemed to go upwards forever, leaving his meager line of sight in the dark. It felt immense, and made him feel very small.

The Book sang sweetly, thanking him and urging him simultaneously. No distractions- they needed to be back before anyone noticed he was gone.

No one could know.

Donnie pushed onwards, following the whispered directions of the Book. He felt creatures moving around him, larger and stronger and thrice as dangerous as he ever might be- and yet felt no fear. The Book would keep him safe. The Book’s presence made it known he wasn’t to be bothered by anyone or anything they met.

Donnie saw things that loped and had glowing eyes watch him pass; he saw things that fluttered iridescent wings observe him keenly as he walked underneath their trees; he saw something more shadow than creature leave his path, wary and watchful of his and the Book’s progress.

Nothing bothered him. Nothing so much as bared their teeth at him.

With the Book, something no creature in the forest would ever tangle with- he was untouchable.

Donnie’s back straightened, and he walked with confidence.

The clearing appeared out of nowhere, after what felt like forever.

Suddenly the trees and bushes gave way, and Donnie entered an open field in the middle of the dense forest. A night wind, cool and sharp, blew through the leaves; blowing his free coils across his vision and swaying the thousands of white flowers on the ground.

Donnie adjusted his glasses, staring out at the clearing. With the moon’s light directly on them, the flowers seemed to nearly glow.

 _There,_ the whispers said. _There go there._

Donnie picked his way across the field, taking in its perfect circle edges. No trees or bushes went past the unofficial line, as though they couldn’t, or _wouldn’t._

Perhaps out of respect, for what lay beneath the field.

His shoes made only the quietest steps as he made his way to the center; avoiding stepping on the delicate stems of the white flowers. As he reached the very middle of the circular clearing, the Book’s song rose in volume to nearly fill all his senses.

“… _oh,”_ Donnie said softly, feeling something shift in the atmosphere around him. “This is you; this is where they sealed you away.”

The Book’s song turned mournful, pained and sorrow filled.

“…why? Why would they-”

Donnie’s vision filled abruptly with a scene, and his breath stuttered. Second-hand agony ripped through him, and he fell to his knees.

The Book’s pages flipped by their own will as he dropped it on the grass, turning to a blank page that filled with ink as the paper settled. Words spilled across the page, and Donnie’s skittering eyes struggled to take it all in.

“How could they… _do that?”_ He whispered, horrified by the things revealed to him. His hand moved unconsciously to his chest, where a pain that wasn’t his centered. Where a hole had been torn. “…I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that. You _trusted them_ , and they- they-”

Water dropped onto his lenses, blurring the pages in front of him.

The whispers changed their tune, becoming regretful as they hurried to comfort him. Donnie removed his glasses, sniffling as he wiped his eyes. He set his glasses on top of the Book’s pages, sinking slowly to the ground to lay on his side.

Underneath, he swore he felt the pulse of the Book’s true presence. It reached upwards at him, but receded before they could connect. Stopped by the cage of spells holding it prisoner.

Donnie’s tears dripped down his face, falling on the grass.

“I’m so sorry,” He said again, voice hoarse. “I promise I’ll get you out. I promise I’ll- I’ll do whatever it takes. I won’t leave you there anymore; you can trust me to get you out.”

The wavering song in his head rose in volume again, and Donnie smiled wetly.

“You’re welcome, and… thank you, for choosing me.”

The Book’s songs and whispers responded to his genuine words, and Donnie closed his eyes for a moment. Imagining what it might be like when he finally heard the real voice of his friend.

Soon.

He wouldn’t leave it down there any longer than he had to, not when so many others had failed or turned away. He’d rescue it, and release it to it’s full glory again.

A tendril of power slid into his mind, caressing him infinitely gently.

Donnie was smart; he could do this for it. He could set it free. All he had to do was follow it’s instructions, and maybe add his own touches along the way…

The songs in his head stayed with him all the way back the dorms, and kept him company as he slept.

Donnie didn’t remember anything the next morning.

He still kept that one book with him as he left for classes, though. For some reason, he couldn’t bear the idea of leaving it alone for more than a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things i like: forests, magic, magical forests, and good boys.
> 
> i got all four into this chapter, yeaaa.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dabs*
> 
> things were getting too calm here. we needed something to shake up raph's story line.

They should’ve been more careful, stayed by the campsite like they’d been told to.

But… Raph had thought they’d be fine. He’d done this a hundred times with his brothers and cousin before. They always did this at least once per family camping trip; him and his brothers, plus Karai, would wander off into the woods at night. To set off fireworks, or sneak a few sips of firewhiskey, or just dick around in the bush. Normal teenager stuff.

They had their wands, they had a nationally ranked duel champion, they had a similarly ranked quidditch seeker, they had _Mikey_ and _Donnie_ who were both freakishly good with spellwork- and Raph had his martial arts and common sense. He loved the woods and he loved discovering what sorts of magical creatures made their home in whichever one they were camping in that year. He knew this sort of scenario as well as any of his family members did. They should have been fine.

He should have stayed with the group, not gotten lost in his head and wandered too far.

Raph had scarcely any warning; just a sudden hush in the night sounds around him as he meandered towards the campsite’s general location. An eerie, unnatural hush.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

On reflex, he tensed his body for a fight.

It wouldn’t have done any good, to punch or bespell his attacker.

A grey-black shape hurtled out of the brush at him, and knocked him to the ground. He caught snarling and claws, as well as pale yellow eyes- right before teeth were sunk into his side, and everything turned to pain.

He blacked out.

 

 

 

When he reopened his eyes, the first thing Raph felt was aching stiffness all through him. The second was a sting to his eyes, since the lights above him went right to the center of his headache.

He struggled to cover his eyes, but found his body felt too sore to do so.

“…Raph?”

Raph blinked sluggishly, turning his head towards the voice.

His twin stared back, spice-red eyes wide and redder than usual. Donnie looked drained, exhausted, and stressed enough his curls were messy and un-kept. He looked pale, pale as they could possibly be, and had sunken rings under his eyes.

Raph blinked again, trying to figure out why everything hurt and why his brother looked like someone had died. “Don? Th’fuck is goin’… why’re you…” He swallowed dryly. “Where am I?”

“The hospital,” Donnie said breathlessly, and then he was hugging Raph.

Raph was unprepared to have his skinny twin do so, but he raised his arms to return the gesture anyways. Donnie slumped awkwardly over him, touching but not, and made a painfully relieved sound into Raph’s shoulder. They stayed like that for a long moment, Donnie’s shoulders trembling as badly as Raph’s arms were.

“Donnie… seriously,” Raph said, throat scratching as he did. “Wha’ happened? Why do I feel like shit?”

Donnie inaudibly sniffled, and gingerly pried himself off. He was still staring at Raph with red rimmed eyes, nervous and fearful at the same time.

A pit of real worry settled in Raph’s gut.

“Where’s everyone else?” He asked, the worry increasing. He couldn’t remember anything. “What- what happened after I blacked out?”

Donnie seemed to shake off his stupor. “They’re fine, all of them are fine,” He said, and that eased the worry in Raph somewhat. “They went to talk to the doctors. There’s only a few family members allowed inside at a time, and, well… they thought if you woke up it’d be best to either have dad or- me,” Donnie’s voice hitched for a moment, and Raph forced his tired arm to grab his brother’s hand on reflex. “waiting for you. To- oh, oh I’m supposed to call someone-”

“Donnie, wait, _wait,”_ Raph clung with a weak grip, not letting Donnie walk away. He didn’t have an answer yet. “What- what _happened_ to me?”

Donnie didn’t stop standing up in time, and Raph’s side exploded in pain as his arm was pulled upwards.

He hadn’t noticed it fully, the edges of unconsciousness blurring where one ache started and another began. He had known he was in immense pain, but he couldn’t tell _where_ it was coming from. Now he could.

It was coming from his side, where the- the-

“-a _wolf,”_ Raph gasped, the memory coming back to him. It- it’d-

Donnie’s hands were around Raph’s, holding tight and giving Raph an unwavering look.

“Raph,” His twin said in a low voice. “Calm down. You’re safe, we got you to the hospital.”

“It _bit me,”_ Raph gasped again, tears springing into his eyes as his lungs refused to cooperate. Everything was catching up with him; the terror, the _pain-_ “Oh god, Donnie, it- was it-?”

“I’m sorry,” Donnie whispered, clutching Raph’s hand tighter.

 _“No,”_ Raph said hoarsely. _“No!”_

“There was an accident, her cell wasn’t properly maintained-”

“ _Oh god.”_

“-you couldn’t have- there wasn’t anything you or anyone else could have done. I’m. I’m sorry, Raph. I’m so sorry. We weren’t there, we weren’t _there_ , and now- you- you’re-”

Raph’s side _burned,_ and he knew why.

Potions and spells could heal a normal animal’s bite within hours, knit the flesh back together with hardly a scar. Magical beasts did damage that took special counteraction, specific procedures that were sometimes time sensitive or near impossible to perform for untrained wizards.

Some injuries by magical beasts were irreversible. Some didn’t have cures at all.

Some were permanent.

The nurses arrived a few minutes after, along with their father in tow. Raph was nearly sixteen, almost an adult with just a few years ahead of him until then.

He still curled up in his father’s arms, shaking and terrified of the throbbing pain in his side.

 

 

 

“…at least I know what my thesis in college is going to be,” Donnie whispered, hours and hours later when they’d returned home. It was just the two of them, curled up in the depression pile in Raph’s closet.

Raph didn’t answer. He kept his head down and stared at the dark around them without seeing anything. He kept feeling the bite sink into his side, changing him irreversibly.

It hurt. He didn’t think it would ever stop hurting.

The scar wouldn’t ever fade, so the pain going away wouldn’t have made much sense anyways.

As the pause stretched, Donnie broke it with a soft sigh.

“Well, as you know, I’ve been looking at possible topics for my applications,” He said, despite Raph’s muteness. “A theory on lycanthropy and its cure is as good as any.”

Raph’s breath hitched, and he shut his eyes tightly.

He couldn’t even think about it without breaking down.

“…I’m sorry, Raph,” Donnie whispered, broken and hoarse. “I’m so sorry. We should have been there. _I_ should have been there. I’ll- I’ll fix this. I’ll fix this and you’ll be okay, I promise.”

Raph choked on a sob, and covered his face.

Donnie held onto him until the worst of the fit passed, and then they sat in silence. Letting the weight of Raph’s new status as a magical beast settle in a bit more, and trying to not let it pull them into despair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so this literally came to me just last night and like
> 
> guys
> 
> g u y s
> 
> w e r e w o l v e s
> 
> W E R E W O L V E S
> 
> i'm so pleased i remembered this was a thing.  
> (sorry not sorry. poor raph.)


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's something light and funny, inspired by a rant my friend had about the house mascots.
> 
> set well in the future, when every if graduated and figuring out college life.

“It’s  _RAVENclaw,_  not  _EAGLEclaw,”_  Donnie exclaimed, pounding one fist on the table. “Why the ff-fuck was my house mascot an  _eagle?_  It doesn’t make any amount of sense!”

April slung an arm across his shoulders, half-shouting “ _Here here!”_  as she leaned on him over the meager space between their chairs. Mikey, finding this topic particularly funny, like he did most topics after a few pints, started laughing hard enough his elbows nearly slid into the chips basket. Leo stared thoughtfully at his drink, looking like he was genuinely thinking hard about Donnie’s rant.

“Also, badgers don’t really fi-fit the Hufflepuff trope?” Leo added, still looking thoughtful. “They’re very solitary and a-aggressive, they don’t even-" 

"YEAH BUT AN  _EAGLE?_ ” Donnie insisted, loudly. Mikey actually did slide into the chips at that exclamation, knocking over what was left of the communal snack.

“I think the f-founders were drunk when they chose mascots,” April said seriously, red in the face and mostly slumped on Donnie.

“I’m think  _you’re_  drunk, April,” Raph said with a smirk. He took another sip of his (unfortunately alcohol free) drink, watching his family make fools of themselves at their bar table.

“I’m not drunk! Donnie, am I drunk?”

“Not at all!” Donnie said sincerely, also very drunk. “Raph, have you seen my glasses? I misplaced my glasses.”

Raph raised an eyebrow, glancing at the pair of specs hiding on top of Donnie’s head.

“Nope,” He said, and took a sip of lemonade.

“Guys, guys the chips are cold,” Mikey said mournfully, holding up a single chip at Leo. “Leo, our chips are cold.”

Raph snorted. “We ordered them over an hour ago, of course they’re cold.”

“I can fix it, just- just hold on,” Leo said, taking out his wand to no doubt cast a reheating spell. Raph debated for a moment of stopping his brother, but figured if Leo didn’t someone else would.

Leo cast the charm.

The chip predictably burst into flames.

Mikey yelped and dropped it, and Raph tossed the last of his drink onto the small fire. 

Raph plucked Leo’s wand out of his hands. “And that’s wand privileges revoked right there.”

“ _No spells inside the bar!”_  A waitress yelled at them from across the room. Raph waved at her, showing that he’d confiscated Leo’s wand. She gave them all a narrow glare, but seemed to silently let them off with a warning.

He heard unsteady footsteps behind him, and then a body was leaning over Raph’s head and shoving him into the table. Raph sighed, and reached for the napkins as their last party member rejoined them.

“Oh shit the  _fries,”_ Casey said, grabbing at the chips. “Mikey how could you knock over the fries? You- you got like three in your hair, ha ha…”

Raph elbowed his friend in the sternum. “Sit down idiot, you have an actual seat.”

“Aw, no love for the Jones?” Casey teased, putting a hand on Raph’s head and rubbing the short buzzcut he had.

Raph swatted the hand. “Not when you smell like grease and bottle. Sit down before I make you.”

Casey said something else to him, but it was lost in translation as he put a handful of chips in his mouth. Raph rolled his eyes, and finished mopping up the worst of the chips+lemonade mess.

“We should do shots,” Mikey said abruptly, like he was having an epiphany.

“We’re not doing shots,” Raph said.

 _“SHOTS!”_  April yelled enthusiastically.

Casey had transferred his elbows onto Donnie’s shoulder, adding to the ridiculous slumped pile of drunk idiots. “I’ll do shots if Don does,” He said, pulling Donnie’s glasses off his head and sticking them on his face. Casey blinked blearily. “ _Whoa shit_ , you’re blind as fuck, Donnie.”

“Well yeah, I lost my glasses. You s-seen them?”

“ _SHOTS!”_ Mikey and April yelled together, joined by a quieter, less sure  _“Shots?”_  from Leo.

“They be on my face righ’ now.”

“Wh- what? When did you even-”

“ _Hey idiots in the corner, pipe down!”_  Someone yelled at Raph and his family. Raph flipped the guy off without looking.

 _“Can we get a round of shots over here?”_ Mikey hollered at the waitress, to which April whooped.

“No, no we don’t actually want those,” Raph said quickly, waving the poor overworked lady off. “Ignore them, he’s a moron and she’s drunk.”

“Hey!” Mikey said. “How- how come April isn’t a moron?”

“Because she has a higher college degree than you and isn’t currently crashing on my couch.”

April barked a triumphant laugh and Mikey whined.

Raph noted that Donnie and Casey’s bickering was getting louder by the second, about what he couldn’t even tell anymore, and Leo was definitely starting to list sideways more frequently; eyes shutting and jerking open again. Between all that plus the two most enthusiastic drinkers of their group, he decided it was time to call it a night.

Raph stood up. “Alright, I got a bottle at my place, and whoever can get there without falling over is welcome to it. Everybody up, come on.”

April and Mikey stood up immediately- April nearly knocking over an unsteady Casey and Donnie as she did, Mikey actually pushing Leo out of the way completely to get out of the booth. Raph let Casey and Donnie get themselves out of the way, and went to haul Leo up by the arm. “C’mon, fearless. Let’s get you to somewhere your fans won’t see you shitfaced.”

“Oh no, my hair is- it’s all… it’s  _messy_ , Raph,” Leo said, suddenly and extremely sad about that fact. “They’ll get  _pictures of it.”_

Raph looked at his brother’s closely cut hair, which couldn’t really  _be_  messy, and shook his head. “Your ugly shoes will distract them from it, don’t worry.”

“My shoes…? I thought they were nice though…  _I_ liked them…”

Raph gave his brother an amused look, and then started leading him after the rest of their crew. He gave the waitress the right amount of coins as they passed her, plus a tip for the mess, and followed the train of walking disasters out the door.

April and Mikey had each other by the waist, singing off-key renditions of old American muggle records Casey insisted on playing. Their steps were hardly in a straight line, and when they tried to dance they mostly just ran into the buildings beside them.

Casey and Donnie’s bickering had lowered into hushed tones, the two of them bent with their heads together and acting like awkwardly walking trees. Raph caught a rise in volume as Casey said something, Donnie shot something back more than a little incoherently, and they shoved at one another, laughing.

Raph listened with one ear to Leo humming aimlessly on his shoulder, and sighed. On the one hand, being the designated escort home was a little lame, but on the other… it was  _really funny_  to watch his family get piss drunk in front of him.

“You’re all idiots,” Raph said, watching April and Mikey try to get Casey and Donnie to dance with them. The attempt took barely two seconds to become a flail of limbs and laughter.

“But you  _looooove_  us,” Leo said with a laugh, and then stumbled, nearly taking Raph down with him. Raph caught them both, and sighed again.

“You’re drunk,” Raph said, and didn’t deny it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> angst is coming soon don't worry, first we just needed some laughs and family time.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's that angst i promised, with some hurt/comfort from family.
> 
> you all know exactly when this is set, ha ha. poor angst muffin raph.

Leo knocked on Raph’s door, three short raps. “Hey Raph? Dinner.”

No answer from inside. Like there’d been no answer at all, since Raph had come home from the hospital last night, promptly removed every living being inside his room, and then barricaded himself in. The only person who’d been allowed in so far had been Donnie, and even Raph’s twin had only been tolerated for a few hours before expulsion.

Leo sighed. “Raph, come on. You gotta eat something. It’s been days.”

_“fuck off,”_ was the faint reply he got.

Leo crossed his arms, grimacing. This was, understandably, the worst funk Raph had ever gotten himself into. Leo probably wasn’t going to get him out of his room unless he dragged his brother.

Which would just make Raph even more mad, and upset for getting even madder, and then Leo’s brother would probably seal the door into the wall again.

Leo sighed very, very deeply.

“I’m coming in,” He announced softly, even though he wasn’t entirely sure if he actually could get inside.

Surprisingly, the door wasn’t blocked or sealed shut.

Leo entered Raph’s room, which was devoid of light or the usual chittering menagerie he kept inside it. Not a good sign.

Even worse, the lump under the blankets of Raph’s bed hadn’t even stirred as Leo entered, and Raph almost always sat up to tell people to fuck off when they weren’t wanted.

Leo sat down on the edge of Raph’s bed, putting a hand on his brother’s legs. “Hey, I know you’re not feeling good, but you have to eat at least a little bit. Starving yourself doesn’t help anything.”

Raph, with barely his head visible under his blankets, mumbled, “’m not hungry.”

Leo rubbed his thumb against the blankets comfortingly. “I know, but you still should.”

“…go away. I’m not in the mood to talk.”

It was the worst thing possible, hearing the sheer tiredness in Raph’s voice. It made him sound defeated, and that’d never been something Raph let himself be.

Well, sometimes. But those times were easier to help him out of than the situation he now was in.

Leo should have been with him, that night. He was the eldest, Raph was _his little brother._  And none of them had been there to save him.

Donnie was taking the whole situation so hard, already starting to wrap him up in texts and theories like he always did when he got truly upset. Leo had scarcely heard anything out of Donnie the last day and a half; what with his brother being in and out of the house hunting down every book or article he could on lycanthropy.

Mikey was struggling, too. Leo knew his brother was a social creature, extremely so, but Raph had expressly forbade any of them telling their friends about his- condition, just yet. The way Mikey had been in and out at odd hours, to escape and talk to the creatures that lived in alleys and nonexistent tunnels Leo had never seen- or pacing the house with a tight expression; it was all the signs that he wanted to talk about something, _do_ something, but couldn’t and it was driving him crazy.

Leo wanted to do all those things, too, but he had to remain the calm one, for the time being. He could go out and fly until his legs ached and his eyes streamed, later, when his brothers weren’t tangling themselves up like they were.

He could do that when he was sure Raph was… not _okay_ , but eating at least.

Leo rubbed his brother’s calve again. “…could you at least go and take your-” animals or pets were not the word for the creatures Raph kept in his room. “-uh, Spike and the rest, from Mikey? I know he’s the least likely to forget to feed them and all while you’re not feeling good, but I think kitty’s been eyeing them. And Mikey can’t be everywhere.” That stood to be proven, actually. Mikey still managed to appear out of thin air sometimes, even after shooting up by inches the last few years.

Leo heard Raph mumble something. “What?”

“Said…” Raph’s voice was croaky and sore sounding. “I shouldn’t be near them, anymore.”

What?

“What? Why?”

Raph made a frustrated sound, bringing a hand up to his face and rubbing at his eyes. “You know why, Leo. Don’t act like you don’t.”

Leo stared at Raph- who had fought tooth and nail to keep all those absurdly loved creatures of his- like he’d gone and grown an extra head on top of becoming a- oh.

Oh.

“Raph… you can’t seriously think you’d-”

“That I’d _what?”_ Raph growled. “Hurt them? _Kill them?_ I’m a fucking- I’m a fucking _Dark Creature_ , Leo. We don’t. Don’t know what I’ll do. Except-” he let out a laugh that sounded painful. “-except what every horror story’s always said things like me would. Christ, Leo. Use your head; you’re always telling me to.”

Leo wondered if he possibly could find a way to rewind time, as illegal as the prospect likely was. He’d be willing to do any jail sentence it took to fix the broken, furious tiredness his brother now had. Even take the bite in Raph’s place.

Leo wished it’d been him. Anybody but his brother.

“…hey, come on. Sit up. I can’t hug you like this.”

Raph made an aborted sniffling sound, but sat up. Leo tugged his little brother as close as it took, and then held him in a hug.

Raph has gotten bigger, puberty really starting to kick in with those shoulders of his. Broad as Donnie was tall, the two of them polar opposites. He still felt remarkably and terribly fragile, now, the way he was shaking ever so slightly in Leo’s tight hold.

“You won’t, okay?” Leo promised Raph. “You love those- whatever they are, more than you love us. I’m positive you’d stick yourself in the foot before you hurt a scale or feather or- whatever the hell wil-o-wisps have. On any of their heads, okay?” Leo put his lips to the stubbly haircut Raph has gotten, just a few weeks ago. A gesture he hadn’t been welcome or needed for in years. Now seemed the time, and from the way Raph relaxed slightly, Leo’s judgement was sound. “You wouldn’t hurt them, even if you’ll be a little furry sometimes, from now on.”

“You don’t know that,” Raph said into Leo’s shoulder, stubbornly doubtful and stubbornly sad. Oh, Raph.

Leo rubbed a hand along Raph’s spine, soothing. “Even if you did try- and you _wouldn’t_ \- we’d stop you, alright? We wouldn’t let you.”

Raph tensed all over, taking in a sharp breath and nearly pulling away. “No- then I’d- I’d get _you guys-”_

“You wouldn’t!” Leo insisted. He knew Raph, same as he knew all his siblings. He knew Raph got mad and sometimes was a right asshole- but he would never hurt them. Not for real. “There’s the wolfsbane potion-”

“You don’t know for sure!” Raph exploded, shoving Leo away and then looking like he’d punched himself. Or wanted to. Raph hunched, looking at the floor and wrapping his arms around himself. “You don’t know for sure I wouldn’t- attack you guys.” Those words were choked, hitching on the way out. “God, Leo I couldn’t- if I _did_ , I’d-”

“You _won’t,”_ Leo said, using his most authoritative voice and stopping that thought line of horror. “We’ll have the potion, and we’ll have you somewhere safe for the whole night.”

Raph scoffed, still hunched and miserable. “Yeah, where I’m safe from ripping someone’s fucking throat out.”  
  
Leo ignored that imagery. He wouldn’t think about that possibility right now. “We wouldn’t let you, and I doubt you actually would anyways. We’ll keep you safe, okay? Uncle Saki already gave us permission to use his cellar, and he’s started looking for someone to sell us the potion.” His brother shook his head, shoulders shaking, and Leo reached out to put a hand on Raph’s back. “Raph, Raph it’ll be okay, you’ll be okay- we’ll _all_ be okay. I promise it’ll work out, somehow.”

Leo would make sure it would be, any way he could manage it. Anything to keep Raph from making that wretched crying face of his any more than he already had been.

“…I’m scared, okay?” Raph confessed quietly. Something he’d only admitted a handful of times their whole lives. Raph’s hands twisted in his sleeves. Claw like. Leo ignored that comparison. “I’m not- I’m not gonna be _me_ anymore, as a- as a wolf. I’m not gonna know who you guys are, or what my pets are, or- or anyone. What if I get out and- and bite one of you?”

“Then we’ll have two werewolves in the family,” Leo said bravely, even if the thought made his anger and fear for their situation double. Two of his brothers, two of _his little brothers-_

He’d love them anyways.

Raph gave him a pale look of unbelieving horror. “And what? You’d just- fucking accept that? That I’m a monster and I’d turned one of you into the same thing?”

“I’d accept it and fight the whole _fucking world_ to protect both of you,” Leo said tightly, and though his chest trembled it wasn’t from fear- but from soul deep _certainty._ “Even if I had to brew the potions and build the fucking cellar all by myself- even if it was _all of you_ \- you’d still be my brothers and I’d still fight anyone who wanted to even lay a finger on you. Dark Creatures or not. I’ll fight the whole fucking ministry! All of fucking Britain! Fucking _anyone!”_ And he’d have to, if it came to that, the whole world looking for his little brothers’ heads- he’d fight them all and _win_ -

A hand on his pulled Leo out of the dark thoughts that were making his fists shake.

Raph looked… tired, sad, but… grateful.

“You don’t have to do that,” Raph said, sounding a little awed.

Leo swallowed all the built up emotions he’d been feeling the past seventy-two hours. All his painful worried feelings and furious outcries of how it wasn’t fair for this to happen. “Yeah I do. And I would. You know I would.”

“…yeah, yeah I do,” Raph’s hand tightened around Leo’s fist and he blinked quickly. “Thanks.”

A tentative knock distracted Leo from how his own eyes were leaking.

“Uh, hey,” Mikey said, looking guilty. Also ridiculous, because he had at least four wil-o-wisps roosting in his hair. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, careful to not drop his pet cat as he did. “So uh, Raph I know you’re goin’ through shit and everything is a nice little blackhole of absolute despair and whatever- but kitty just ate and threw up a salamander and now there’s flaming vomit all over my bed. Please take back your critters.”

Kitty the hell-cat murrowed angrily in Mikey’s arms, hiccuping and letting out a puff of smoke.

Leo stared at Mikey, trying to make sense of that sentence and its imagery.

Raph, for the first time in days, let out a genuine laugh.

“Can _anything_ kill that cat?” Raph asked, looking less like death was weighing over him.

Mikey shrugged. “Probably not. But, as funny as it was to watch a salamander get all angry like from being cat-vomited, it’s kinda hard on my textiles? And- ow- my hair?” Mikey juggled kitty, keeping her away from clawing distance of his tag along fae. “Seriously, take ‘em back would you?”

Then Mikey looked a little closer at Leo and Raph. And made a face. “Oh shit, was this a-? Shit, sorry, it’s just my bed is on fire and I can’t put kitty down 'cause she’ll try and eat the salamanders again and then _more_ of my stuff will be on fire-”

“Give the hell creature over and go already,” Raph said, holding out his hands.

“-okaythanksbye.”

Mikey tossed his probably immortal cat over to Raph and ran out of the room. Just in time too, because Leo thought he smelt smoke. Smoke with a hint of eu du cat vomit.

Leo sighed. “It might be a little early to make this joke, but I think this whole werewolf incident officially makes me the _normal_ sibling.”

Raph snorted, a blessedly normal sound for him to make. “Says the seeker half the country is scouting.”

“I don’t have any ties to eldritch beings or the knowledge to harness their magics, or have a bizarre ability to connect with anyone and anything I meet, and I don’t get furry once a month. I’m positively average compared to you lot.”

Raph laughed, petting the purring and smug cat on his lap. “And don’t forget our cousin, the best duelist in three wizarding countries. Or our uncle, the head of aurors. Or our _dad_ , the former fucking head of aurors. You know what, you’re right Leo. You’re boring compared to us.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “At least I get dragged into all your misadventures. Whatever would I do otherwise?”

“Probably do all your homework on time and smile for the cameras like a good little up and coming quidditch star. Go to bed on time, have boring little dates with your boyfriend. Be sickeningly normal.”

“Sounds too mild for me, you’ve all warped my threshold for what’s exciting enough.”

Raph barked a laugh, light and normal. It unwound a knot in Leo’s chest. It gave him hope his promise could be fulfilled- that they really would get through this okay.

Mikey ran past the open door suddenly, chanting _“-here sally, sally, salamanders-”_ and definitely chasing something(s) leaving a black trail on the hallway carpet.

Leo wouldn’t have traded his family for anything, strange and troublesome as they were- but did every second of the day _really_ have to be like this?

“Please take your creature back before the house burns down,” Leo said, already mentally tallying how many cleaning and repairing charms he’d need for today.

Raph was quiet for a moment, and then sighed. “Okay, I’ll take them back. It’s just- I was just- _worried_ about them, you know? Since I’m not… how I used to be. They might not even want to be around me, now that I’m a…”

Leo glanced at kitty in Raph’s lap; her eyes shut and looking utterly content. “Kitty likes you fine.”

“Yeah, but she also just ate a flaming amphibian and barely coughed after.”

“Point, but still. You’re still you, Raph. They won’t suddenly hate you just because of this.”

“The rest of the world does, why not them?” Raph said softly.

It was moments like this that Leo remembered, as much as Raph pretended otherwise, just how conscious his brother could be of himself and what people thought of him. And how hurt he’d let himself be, underneath the bluster and anger.

Leo drew himself up. “You said you were, and a lot of asshole will, too- but you’re not a monster, Raph. You’re my creatures obsessed bruiser of a brother, who doesn’t know how to stop caring about people once he starts. Ask anyone who knows you, and they’ll say the same thing. And,” Leo added seriously. “If they don’t, I’ll punch them in the nose and sic our siblings on them after. Karai, too.”

“Now that’s just cruel,” Raph said, smiling faintly. “That’d leave them no chance of survival.”

Leo sniffed. “That’s the idea here.

A crash, somewhere in the other rooms of their townhouse, and what was probably Mikey cursing in Latin.

Raph had a small, wry smile. "You should take care of that.”

Leo held out a hand to Raph. “He’s your little brother, too. That makes you also responsible if he wrecks the house while dad is out.”

Raph huffed.

He took Leo’s hand, and allowed himself to be pulled out of bed.

It was a small victory, getting Raph to smile and eat, but Leo counted it anyways. From here on out, it would take every little accomplishment to keep his brother from faltering completely, and being crushed by the prospect of his future.

Their future. Raph wasn’t alone in this. They were all with him, and would be there every step of the way.

Leo wouldn’t let it be any other way.

By the time their dad and Donnie came home, from getting paperwork set up for Raph’s condition- Raph was sitting at the table with a cat in his lap, food on his plate, and a smile on his face, however temporary those things all were.

It was still a victory. It would always be a victory. And Leo intended to see it won every single time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is so much angst in this arc of the story oh no.
> 
> but on the other hand, this leo is the best older brother possibly ever and pretty much my favorite leo out of all my AU's
> 
> more to come :D


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm between a bunch of big projects right now, and i just wanted something nice and fun to do after a long work shift.
> 
> i'm still on the kick for werewolf raph, though this one is from a different perspective on things...

A week into their new school year, Mikey walked briskly through the long halls of Hogwarts. The tiny white flowers weaved into his hair tickled his ear; the delicate plants gifted to him by his pixie friends that morning when he’d visited their neck of the Forbidden Forest. It was good to be back in school, if only so he could reacquaint himself with the miscellaneous friends he’d made throughout the castle and its grounds.

His friends were good one; especially the ones who lurked and skulked in the castle’s many, many hiding places. They told him so very many interesting things, seeing as he was one of the few who would listen to their words.

Their words, and the bitterly divulged ones from his older brother, were leading him to one of the study rooms that afternoon. Raph did hate to admit he needed help, needed support. Especially regarding his lycanthropic status.

Good thing Mikey hadn’t ever let his brother’s need for independence stop him. If he did, there would have been _way_ too many slights left unanswered. And when it came to family, he just couldn’t let that stuff slide.

He opened the door to one of the more popular study rooms; large windows and comfortable chairs, with just enough warmth from a fireplace and pleasant little flowerpots spread through the room to make it cozy. In an effort to integrate students better without aggravating any house rivalries, communal study lounges had been added over the years. This was one of the ones closer to Ravenclaw’s dorm, though it had a relatively even mix of house colors inside.

Mikey’s eyes fixed on the sibling green of one of his housemates, and let a curl to his lips spread across his face.

He navigated the room, silently walking towards that particular study table, and ignored the eyes that followed him. He’d attracted stares on and off through the years thanks to his family’s notoriety, as well as his own misadventures. This year wasn’t turning out to be any different, and Mikey had long since adjusted to the experience.

“Matthias,” Mikey said pleasantly as he took a seat. The boy across the table raised his pale grey eyes from his scroll, polite acknowledgement of a fellow Slytherin.

“Michelangelo,” Matthias replied coolly. He sat back in his chair, giving a subtle look of disdain that wasn’t subtle enough to miss. “Can I help you?” he asked, clearly not intending to give any aid even if Mikey asked for it.

“Just stopping by to say hi!” Mikey enthused. He smiled at Matthias. “How’s your year been so far? Settling back into your dorm?”

“It’s been the usual,” Matthias said. He sighed, looking to the side like conversing was a great burden. “Michelangelo, though you’re family circumstances are unfortunate, you’ve been an admirable Slytherin the years I’ve known you. I owe you frankness for that.”

“Oh?” Mikey asked, still smiling with teeth.

Around them, Mikey heard the sounds of wiser students picking up on the tension of the conversation. He knew the other Slytherins in the room, along with a few observant Hufflepuffs, were ushering their friends out the door. Both those houses tended to be more aware of social situations than the other two, particularly when a feud of any sort was brewing.

Feuds happened often between families with long lineages, and no one wanted to get between angry wizards and their targets. And so long as no spells were (obviously, loudly, etc.) cast, teachers were kept out of things. Lesser chances of a wounded party turning their ire on anyone who interrupted the fight.

Like the one right now, though Mikey hadn’t ever had quarrel with anyone based on their family history. His didn’t reach back far enough to do so. His were always solely based on the present members of the problems.

Matthias being one of the many Mikey had been steadily weeding out, over the past week and months. Taking care of family really did require a lot of work sometimes, didn’t it?

“I don’t want to associate with someone in your… situation,” Matthias said, just as people were clearing the room. Specifically doing so to make sure they’d all hear. Carry the gossip even further about Mikey’s family.

Mikey’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t stop smiling.

“And which situation is that?” he asked gamely.

“Don’t play coy,” Matthias sniffed. “it doesn’t suit you. Or I suppose it does. How you get away with so much, with such infamy, is beyond me.”

“It’s a talent,” Mikey said breezily. Then, he lowered his voice, letting slip some of his politeness. “But really, Matthias. If you’re going to be spinelessly prejudice, at least have the guts to say it out loud.”

Matthias sneered. Mikey smiled with teeth.

“Werewolves shouldn’t be allowed in Hogwarts,” Matthias said, disgust dripping in his words. He said _werewolves_ like one would say _sewage waste._ “They shouldn’t be allowed in society at all, let alone a school like this. I’m guessing you’re here in the name of your mongrel brother, correct?”

Mikey laughed, floaty anger bubbling in his chest.

“Big words for being a halfblood yourself!” Mikey said brightly. “Acting like a snotty pureblood doesn’t make you one, don’t you know?”

Matthias scowled darkly. Mikey nearly laughed again.

“Why are you here?” Matthias asked scathingly, lip curled.

“You and some of your buddies did something you _shouldn’t have~”_ Mikey sang, leaning forwards on their table. He grinned at his housemate, someone he’d mostly regarded as a little desperate for social acceptance, but a reasonable enough person. Not so much anymore. “I’m here to say you should apologize, and kindly pay for the cages you trashed.”

The image of his brother’s summer project, taken home as extra credit for one of the few classes he excelled in, crushed under the weight of cruel feet and stained in places with unmentionable reds- all the little creatures he’d gently tended to, even as he recovered from the wolf’s bite, scattered among the rafters and through the halls without a single person to care for them-

Raph’s stricken expression, and the bitten back resignation he felt about being targeted, forced into silence to avoid being made a spectacle, possibly even expelled, during the very first week back at school-

Mikey’s anger rarely roused, but this definitely woke it right up.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Matthias denied, and Mikey smiled sweetly. His friends had told him plenty about Matthias, about how the little creatures had screamed and flown for their lives as horrible, heartless people had come to crush their tiny skulls, and about other things, too. Secret things.

“I think you do,” Mikey said, and he leaned on his palms as he spoke. “and, I think you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say… _Lucky Shot.”_

Matthias went stiff in his chair, blood abruptly leaving his face. Mikey chuckled, tilting his head and letting his hair fall to the side.

“Not only is it illegal to dope your luck before a competition, but using equally illegal knockoff brand potions? That’s pretty bad shit to be getting into, Ma-tthi-as,” Mikey said, sickly sweet and enjoying the fear in his housemate’s eye. “Even worse shit if it gets out that our own up and coming dueling star has done it, oh… five times, now? That’s a lot of duels to cheat, Matthias. How do you feel like explaining _that_ to the headmistress, the whole school, and all the prospecting league teams looking your way?”

“How do you know all that?” Matthias asked in a shaky whisper. His hands were inching towards his robe, where his wand likely was, but Mikey flicked his out of his sleeve first- training it casually on Matthias’s face, forcing his housemate to freeze.

With the family he had, and the speed Karai drew her wand, Mikey’s average reaction time outpaced his entire year. Possibly majority of his house.

Felt good, the kind of satisfaction gained from winning so completely.

“I have my sources,” Mikey said flippantly. “Now,” he grinned with all his teeth, the tip of his wand glowing. “how does the chance to apologize to my brother, and swear to _never_ bother him again, sound to you?”

 

 

 

“And then he just… apologized,” Raph said, sounding completely baffled still.

Mikey hummed interestedly, eating an apple he’d snitched from the kitchen before dropping into the Gryffindor tower.

“Shoved a bunch of coins into my hands right after, then bolted like someone set his robe on fire. Weirdest fucking experience all week.”

“ _Sounds_ weird,” Mikey agreed.

Raph glanced up from where he was sitting on the floor, counting the coins and storing them into a bag to bring to Hogsmeade next weekend. For new cages, and judging from the extra coins to the side, a few treats for himself as well. Perfect, just like Mikey had hoped.

“You sound smug about something,” Raph observed. Mikey waved a dismissive hand, rolling onto his stomach on his brother’s bed. He took another crunch of his apple before responding.

“Finally figured out where kitty went,” Mikey lied. He’d found his cat within hours of losing her on the train, all safely curled up on his dorm bed and expectantly flicking her tail. Just like he’d known she would be.

“Where’d she get off to this time?”

“One of the dungeons,” Mikey lied again, licking his lips of apple juice. “She killed a bunch of rats and was sleeping it off.”

“Ew,” Raph muttered, as rats were one of the few tiny fuzzy animals he didn’t love. To avoid further questioning, Mikey reached down towards the floor and snatched at the coins, saying he ought to get a share since he took care of the critters part of the summer. His brother fended him off with curt scolding, adding, _“-and you’re not even supposed to be in here, idiot,”_ like that had ever stopped Mikey before.

Mikey kept the whole ordeal to himself- Raph had _way_ too much on his plate already- and finished his apple without another question towards his good mood. Mikey however did enjoy the shared secret he had with Matthias, as the slightly older boy would pale considerably each time they passed each other in the hallways.

Mikey took great joy in making someone run with their tail between their legs, simply by smiling at them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> people seem to forget that half the reason slytherins are so good at getting into power is bc of social prowess. when everyone is your friend, you tend to know a lot about what's going on! and if you've got the wit to use all that information to you and yours benefit.... oh that is a powerful weapon indeed.
> 
> anyone who thinks that 2012 mikey isn't a scary little shit of a gossip is absolutely wrong. i wrote an essay one time on tumblr about all the reasons why he's a ruthless and p sociopathic person, and while i won't bother you all with that, know i translate that portion of his character into SA mikey's. who, while being considerably less war hardened and cutthroat, isn't exactly a bundle of sunshine.
> 
> and anyway. sunshine burns you in large quantities, so do what you will with that metaphor.


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i finally explain the salad tongs and the spiders.
> 
> next chapter i explain the Thing.

“WORST PLAN! _EVER!!”_ Raph yelled at Casey, sprinting as fast as he physically could.

“I KNOW! BUT WE’RE NOT DEAD YET, SO!” Casey screamed back. “I THINK IT COULD BE WORSE!”

“ _HOW COULD IT BE WORSE?!”_ Raph screeched as dozens of giant magical _spiders_ thundered after them, with all their horrible hairy legs and poisonous fangs right on their tails and _oh god he was going to die, he was definitely going to die._

He blamed his dumbass twin for getting them into this.

Maybe if Donnie had _talked to him,_ explained why he was being an antisocial _weirdo_ and refusing more and more to so much as breathe in the same room as Raph, explained why he’d been skulking around for weeks and doing suspicious things with that _book_ of his- then _maybe_ Raph wouldn’t be in the middle of the Forbidden Forest being pursued by _giant fucking spiders._

Figured that Casey, as they were being surrounded by them, would suggest “ _What if we lead them towards the clearing?”_ because of course Raph’s friend would suggest that suicidal plan. Of _course._

Not that Raph had fought him on it all that much, not with Donnie’s life being threatened and the air getting thick and weird with an energy that just felt _off,_ and in a last ditch effort to execute the plan without getting them killed, he’d tried to call practice brooms from the school to their aid.

Accio _anything_ always seemed a lot easier when it was his father using the spell.

Instead of two brooms bursting through the tree tops to rescue them, arriving in the nick of time as Casey’s desperate banter with the Acromantulas started to fail, two metal objects smacked into Raph’s open palm.

He’d stared blankly at the objects. And realized. That he was hungry. And a fucking idiot.

“Are those _salad tongs?!”_ Casey had said, just as horrified as Raph.

“I didn’t eat dinner,” Raph had excused weakly. Distraction while casting magic was the true bane of any wizard’s spellwork. _Especially_ when summoning something.

Casey had made a terrified gurgle, and from that point things were a blur of trying to survive a rash of lunges towards them- narrowly avoided, narrowly kept ahead of. There had been a definitively heart seizing moment where Casey was pinned by a spider, and Raph didn’t have time to find words for a good spell.

He’d just bolted forwards, leapt on top of the spider, and jammed the stupid salad tongs right into the creature’s face. The thing bucked under him, causing worse damage to itself as Raph was forced to rip out the tongs, and Casey caught him before he could hit the forest floor.

They kept sprinting full tilt after that, and by some utter miracle, were able to burst through the fringes of the clearing without being caught and killed. It really sucked that the situation became no less bizarre and terrifying even then- the sight of Donnie flat on the ground, a wild eyed man struggling to stand up and giving them all a blankly furious snarl, and Leo giving them a truly shocked look as they ran towards him, still pursued by spiders.

Oh, and there was what looked like a thing made of white light and writhing flesh blooming out of the ground in the center of a spell circle. Because that was just the cherry on top of this whole disaster.

“ _Leo!”_ Raph yelled breathlessly.

“Raph? Casey?!” Leo exclaimed, eyes darting everywhere as spiders flooded the clearing. “What the _fu_ -”

“NO TIME JUST PICK US UP,” Casey shrieked, and dove towards Donnie. Raph did the same, grabbing his stupid, moronic, _idiot_ of a genius twin, and hefting him as they scrambled to hold onto Leo’s broom.

By sheer luck, Leo managed to keep the broom stable and lift them all off the ground. The white burning _thing_ growing larger and larger in the center of the clearing was the _least_ of their problems at that moment. All that matter was staying in their air, not letting go of the broom, and not falling to the ground to be _spider chow._

Raph noticed then that Donnie wasn’t exactly deadweight in his arms. His brother was twitching, mumbling feverishly, normally red eyes drained to pale pink and fixed on nothing as he stared at the ground.

“What’s wrong with him?” Raph asked, struggling to hold Donnie up as he shook, grip on the broom and around his brother’s weight slipping bit by terrifying bit.

“I don’t know,” Leo said distractedly, trying to keep an eye on the thing in the clearing, on keeping the broom steady, and on the spiders being fended off by the unknown man below. “Okay, okay we got you, and- and we got Donnie. Let’s go, someone’ll know what to-”

Donnie abruptly seized up, and screamed words that blurred Raph’s vision and deafened him. He felt his grip around his brother’s chest slip, the same time as Casey’s did. He felt Leo lose control of the broom. He felt them falling.

Raph hit the ground hard, and blacked out.


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wow this took forever haha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and FINALLY, a conclusion to the Things He Should Not Know arc of donnie's story. oh my god, it took forever. i'm sorry yall.

Donnie’s head felt like someone had just forcibly popped his ears, suddenly relieving all the pressure inside it.

He stared up at the night sky, which he could barely see. Not with his friend lighting up the darkness like that.

His body ached, and his head was starting to hurt even worse. The fall and the overflowing magic both taking its toll on him. But… in a way, he felt more at peace than he had since coming to Hogwarts.

Slim streaks of light were entering his vision, weaving and snaking in the air over his body. He realized belatedly it wasn’t a head injury causing them, but his friend’s true form reaching out to him.

Donnie turned his head slowly, blinking at the somewhat blurry world. He’d lost his glasses at some point, and everything was fuzzy on the edges. But he could still make out that he was surrounded by… his brothers, and Casey.

And further out, what looked like retreating forms of giant spiders. Acromantula. Huh, when had they showed up?

No matter, now. His friend was free. Nothing could hurt them now. It wouldn’t let that happen. Its tentacle came down gently from the air, sliding under Donnie’s side and lifting him up and off the ground.

It was… _beautiful._ He could barely look at it head on, couldn’t process half of what he was seeing, but it was nonetheless _beautiful._

There were so few like it left in the world, on this dimensional plain of existence. As humanity grew in size and strength, and more and more of its kind were betrayed by ones they thought trustworthy, those of the outer realms and rings left this reality.

But this one couldn’t, in all its brilliantly bright glory, it had been betrayed before it realized what its friends were using it for. A chunk of it ripped out and shoved into a physical object, the key to the binding curse, and all the rest of its power locked into the very grounds of Hogwarts.

It had been meant to fuel and protect ancient wards, a ward in itself against others like it, and over time… the wizards that sealed it away died, and took the crime they’d committed with them.

Only in auspicious years, in auspicious _decades,_ could it reach out to find one who could hear its voice and songs. Only in those times could it find someone with thirst for knowledge and discovery and _untamed magic_.

Raw magic. The original magics.

Donnie had always hated the constricted and constrained way his fellow wizards and witches used their powers. All the rules and laws and _protocols_ to do any little thing. It was all so stiff and over practiced, locked in tradition and almost completely dependent on wands and family legacy.

His unique condition, the way his magic was forever bubbling over and never settling, and how he had no family legacy, had blood judged impure by those in control of his society- none of it fit into that system. None of he and his siblings fit into it at all.

That’s why he’d been chosen. That’s why his friend had looked into him and saw _potential._ It saw what he wanted, what he _craved_ in a way he’d never been able to put into words, and it _sang to him._

Sang of the truths, of the old worlds, of the older ways, sang of how if he listened, if he _set it free…_

…then some of that old world magic would breathe back into this new one.

It held him now, setting him upright on his feet and basking him in its unending glow. It was so vast, now. It towered over him, flooded the clearing- barely contained by flesh it had made for this moment, so they could touch one another, at last.

“… _hi,”_ Donnie said, breathlessly happy as he laid his hands on the tendrils of flesh and light. It was hot, hot enough he thought it should be burning him, but it wasn’t.

It knew him. It was singing for him.

 _Hello,_ spoke most of the rising and falling tune. _Love, care, blessing, thank you, thank you,_ sang the rest.

Donnie’s eyes were streaming, uncaring how badly it ruined his vision. He couldn’t describe it, but the voice his friend had, the voice of a being from time humanity hadn’t even been created yet, it swelled and grew and filled everything inside him with glowing warmth that felt like _it_ looked.

“ _NO!_ ” screamed a ragged voice. “No, _no!_ It was supposed to be me- it was _supposed to be me!”_

Donnie glanced to the edge of the clearing, where a man was staggering and holding his wand outstretched. His face was filled with wretched emotions, over boiling hatred clear in his eyes.

“…Alizbar,” Donnie said gravely, feeling his friend wind its limbs around him protectively.

Alizbar Blakenbor sneered. “You _stupid_ whelp of a boy- you’re nothing but a thieving _child._ _I_ was supposed to raise it, _I_ was supposed to gain its blessing- I spent my ENTIRE LIFE WORKING TOWARDS THIS MOMENT-”

Donnie leaned into the embrace of his friend, letting its power fill his mind and light up his magic inside. It was even greater, now. The flowing warmth of it, the sheer _vastness_ of what he knew like this- endless, endless possibilities, too many spells to count, images and scenes of things that happened ages and ages ago and things that might yet pass fliting through his mind-

Donnie plucked out what he needed with ease, absolutely content with the great riptide of knowledge he was submerged in.

“-YOU DO NOT DESERVE THE HONOR,” Alizbar bellowed, wand tip alight with green and death pooling all around him. “Its power should be _mine_ and _mine alone._ Someone’s mudblooded bastard _WILL NOT STEAL THAT FROM ME-”_

“------,” Donnie whispered, magma and raw energy pooled on his tongue, and Alizbar was sucked into a void of stars that opened beneath his feet.

His friend turned him from the space the man had been, petting Donnie’s coils and wet cheeks. Donnie was still crying, and he thought he might be crying even worse now.

Alizbar wasn’t dead, but he was somewhere he could never try to hurt Donnie, or his friend, or his family ever again. Somewhere his friend planned to go, very soon.

Already the plants beneath his feet were growing larger, growing _stronger-_ blades of grass thickening and little flowers blooming everywhere- life revitalizing, magic flowing through the ground as it should. Wild magic, the first magics.

It would spread fast and far, and perhaps begin waking up other old beings, other creatures that’d gone to sleep at the dawning of mankind’s rise to power. Maybe it would bring the world’s old ways back into the present.

But… his friend was still going to leave him.

Donnie choked on his sobs, curling into the limbs extended to cradle him. The vast presence in his mind was sad that he was sad; mourning how much pain their separation was going to cause Donnie.

“You could- you could come back, right?” Donnie asked desperately. “You don’t h-have to leave _forever,_ do you?”

 _Perhaps,_ was the response to that, but with it came the sense of _perhaps_ meaning _long after you are gone._ It had been away from its home for so long, been caged by spells and mortal realm physics- it was tired, and homesick. It had to leave, and wouldn’t be back within Donnie’s lifetime, even if Donnie extended it as far as a wizard could.

“ _No, please,”_ Donnie begged. He didn’t know what he’d do without it, without its songs in the back of his head, without the comfort it provided him whenever he felt like he wouldn’t ever fit in, without the unending ocean of _knowledge_ it held, flowing back and forth between them and nurturing Donnie’s growing abilities…

How could he come back from that? How could he close those doors when he knew, really _knew,_ what the truth of reality actually was? The truth of _magic itself._

He’d be so alone.

 _No,_ sang his friend, in a hundred chiming voices, and it cleared some of its tendrils from Donnie’s vision to show him…

His brothers, Leo and Raph, and Casey. Lain out on the thick grass and covered in white petals. They’d… come to find Donnie. He remembered that now. They’d come to rescue him from what they thought was going to hurt him, even though it meant braving the Forbidden Forest and facing down a rogue wizard.

 _Never alone,_ it whispered to him, gentle and caring, and Donnie sucked in a small breath as his mind filled with visions- of April, who was his first friend at Hogwarts, who was funny and smart and hung out with him even though his magic didn’t work right and he kept disappearing all year- of Mikey, fast asleep in his room at home, a pile of letters scattered across his battered writing desk, every single letter they’d sent him kept within sight and clearly read many times over-

Of them all, but older, wiser, grown and accomplished, sitting around a warmly lit living room Donnie didn’t know, their cups full of hot chocolate and mouths stretched in wide grins, all of them so… _happy_ seeming…

Donnie felt his cheeks being wiped, and looked up into the many, many eyes of his friend. Its flesh was shifting, constant and flowing, but he found something approximating it face to look at.

The brightness shining from all over it should have blinded Donnie, but he found himself able to look head on without even blinking. He didn’t want to blink. This would be the first and last time he could see it.

Its many mouths opened, canines flashing brilliant pearlescent, and a chorus of song rose into the air.

Donnie felt.

He felt.

He felt _exultant._

The song rose and grew and filled up every nook and cranny of the forest around them. It was a force unlike any other, flooding through the very fibres of each living being. Donnie was drowned in the great tide of voice, and he slipped under it willingly.

It was the most incredible sound he’d ever heard, more beautiful than any birdsong could hope to be, more life to it than any human could produce- it was _everything,_ encompassing them all in a brilliance no creature of earth could create.

Then, it quieted, changing to a soothing hum, and slowing to a near silence.

Donnie knew it was time.

And, he knew much of what had happened between them would leave his memories. Human minds, even his, couldn’t contain even a cupful of the knowledge and power his friend possessed, that it had shared with Donnie. He’d have fragments, impressions, memory of actions he didn’t know the purpose of- and the feeling of loss.

But he’d have his family.

And that would be enough.

It always would be enough.

“Thank you,” Donnie whispered, feeling the visions of the future slipping from his grasp. The happiness they’d achieve, someday. It would come in time.

He could wait.

His friend swathed him one more time in its blanket of power, heavy and ancient, but comfortingly warm. Achingly familiar, after all these months.

It would miss him. It would miss their friendship, and long after Donnie was dust once again, it would remember him. The one who’d freed it. The one who shone like a star among his species, brilliant and blooming. Someday, Donnie would have achieved everything he’d hoped to, and someday, others would see the potential in him that his friend had, that first time Donnie picked up the Book.

The Book was a pile of ashes, by now. Incinerated to finish the last step to the ritual as words of Old flowed from Donnie’s mouth. He’d miss it, like he’d miss his dear friend.

His friend sang back how it too, would miss him so very dearly. Donnie blinked fresh tears out of his eyes, and prepared for the finale.

A tendril, white with glowing energy, came to hover in front of Donnie’s eyes.

 _Goodbye,_ it sang, and touched the center of Donnie’s forehead.

 

 

 

The world grew bright.

Then rich with black.

And then flooded again with color.

And Donnie… _knew._

He knew so many things, felt most of those things rushing past him, unable to grasp and keep hold of any of them-

Except a few.

A sliver, a fraction of its knowledge.

Given only to him.

Donnie felt its great presence leave him, fading from the world it had just filled once again with wild magics, and he felt himself falling a second time that night.

 

 

 

Donnie woke, later. When he did… he was staring up at the ceiling of the school infirmary.

Everything felt… distant. Off-kilter. Like suddenly everything had shifted its weight and he was left wrong footed.

Or maybe, everything had shifted _back_ , and he’d forgotten how to walk this way. Donnie reached for something inside himself, to steady the dizziness, and found-

Nothing.

Emptiness.

Oh, no.

It was all gone now. Every part of it.

Gone forever.

Donnie’s eyes filled, and he raised his shaking arms to cover his face.

So that was it. It was over. His friend was gone. He didn’t know exactly what he was missing, but he _knew_ parts of those months were already gone from his memories. They were gone and his chest felt someone had carved out a hole in it.

Oh god.

He was so alone.

Donnie hiccupped, feeling the loss all through his being, and tried to remember how to breathe. Everything felt so wrong.  _He_ felt wrong. He wanted his friend back, he wanted its presence and its songs and its love back.

How was he going to live like this? How could he _possibly…?_

“…Donnie? Shit, hey, _Donnie._ ”

Hands closed around Donnie’s wrists, and pulled them away to expose his face. Looking down at him, wearing a rumpled sleep shirt, was his twin.

“Are you okay?” Raph asked, and after months of responding _I’m fine_ to the question…

Donnie found himself saying, _“No,”_ with a broken sob.

Raph let himself be dragged into the bed, and be squeezed tight as Donnie could manage. He felt so weak, and _empty,_ and the only thing keeping him from falling into that emptiness was Raph hugging him back with all his strength.

Later, he’d find out his dad had come hours before, called by the school to come and intervene, and that it had been April who lead them all to the site of the disaster. She’d been tracking them most of the fiasco, but had been held up by the Forbidden Forest’s flora and fauna, as well as the mysterious wave of unknown magic that had knocked everyone flat on their backs within a ten mile radius. By the time she got there, everyone was passed out on the ground and the drama was over.

She’d taken Leo’s broom, gone to get the grownups, and lead everyone back to the others. Later, in the morning, she and Casey would come back to see both of them, and she’d look Donnie in the eye and say,

“I don’t blame you for not telling me, or anyone,” April would say with a neutral expression. “I’ve been doing some research on eldritch beings this morning, and the best we’ve got in terms of their documentation is that they’re more powerful than any modern day wizard could hope to deal with. Even the first wizards and witches could barely contain them, even with joint spellwork of up to thirty participants. So. In conclusion. You got possessed and there really wasn’t anything anyone could have done about it, least of all you.”

And Donnie would stare at her, and with a clear head, finally be able to remember just how many times he shut her out over the course of their friendship, and how good of a friend she really was for sticking by him despite that.

“I’m still sorry,” he would eventually say.

“Good,” she’d say back. And then smile. “Because if you weren’t, I think you wouldn’t be the sort of friend I’d want to have.”

Donnie would find himself smiling back, and slowly but surely, starting to feel completely like himself again.

“I can’t believe you got possessed in your first week at school,” Raph would mutter belligerently, still stuck close as possible to Donnie’s side and showing no sign of budging.

And Donnie would shrug. Because like April said, there wasn’t really anything they could do about it.

And then Casey would make a reference to something in American muggle media none of them would get- something about ‘pokey-mon’ being mixed with something from a lagoon to make the eldritch being they’d met- and they’d spend the next while comparing muggle things with wizard legends. Up until Mikey would burst into the room, and fling himself onto Donnie’s sickbed.

But that would be later, in the morning hours.

For now, with loss and confusion ringing through all of Donnie’s soul, he curled up against someone who’d been by his side since before he took his first breath, and tried to find that connection once again. To replace the one that had pushed it aside, made it secondary for the first time ever.

Donnie would miss his friend. He would miss the feeling of knowing everything he could ever want, and having the skills to _do_ whatever he wanted. He would miss the songs no other human on earth had heard in hundreds and hundreds of years, and all the love and care they held within them.

But, it wouldn’t have ever been enough to fully replace this. Lying in a bed, aching and exhausted, tucked up close to his brother- who’d hassled and bullied everyone into letting them stay together in the infirmary, despite Raph being perfectly fine. His brother, like all their other family members, who would always be there for Donnie.

Donnie slept, uneasily at times, but he slept nonetheless. Because he knew, when he woke up, he wouldn’t be alone. He never had been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow! so that's the end of this particular story! definitely not the sort of experience that'll fuck up a kid or anything, am i right guys?


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bonus scene of Things Yall Shouldn't Fucking Know You're Literally Twelve: april's pov.

Finally shoving her way out of the brush, April spat out a leaf that’d somehow made its way into her mouth. She shoved her bangs out of her face, staring around and panting.

There’d been an army of gigantic _spiders_ running towards her earlier, and thanking whatever god had just had a hand in her continued living, they’d completely ignored her.

But, because of those Acromantulas, and because of the wall of sheer _sound_ and raw magic that’d knocked her off her feet, she’d apparently gotten here after everything was over.

April stood on the edge of the clearing- which wasn’t really a clearing anymore, given the grass and flowers covering it was about waist level on her- breathing fast and heavy as she stared at the bodies of her passed out friends, all of them scattered across the grounds.

All that effort of sneaking out and fighting her way through the Forbidden Forest, and she didn’t even get to be a part of the action?

“Oh _come on,”_ April said aloud, utterly annoyed with herself for being late to the party.

Grumbling, she eventually decided to drag everyone into one area, take Leo’s broom, and fly off to get help. And, you know, pray her friends didn’t get eaten by magical forest creatures while she was gone.

A part of her was worried about them all, especially Donnie given he was at the epicenter of things. And about the weird pale mark on his dark forehead, shaped like a slender tined star with eight points. Worried about what that could mean in regards to everything.

But, mostly speaking, she was annoyed that after all those months of putting up with secrets and shenanigans and blatant lies, she didn’t even get to see the climax of the whole thing.

Absolutely speaking, _so_ unfair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 12 yr old april voice: son of a BITCH.


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i realize raph and donnie are like, the best kind of opposite twins. so i thought of this and spent a good minute laughing to myself.
> 
> set during the train ride home, post-possession shenanigans and what not.

Watching the two Hamato siblings bicker, Casey wondered how a pair of twins could be such opposites. Donnie was already hitting a growth spurt, standing a whole two inches over Raph, and was gangly as Casey was. Raph meanwhile had a pair of shoulders that could only get broader as he grew, a bit of a gut, and was definitely on the short side of the scale. Donnie had his hair in flyaway coils and wore glasses. Raph sported a buzz cut and could see perfectly fine. They didn’t even have the same eye color.

They’d both been arguing about something the past ten minutes on their side of the train cabin, increasingly heated and increasingly difficult to understand. Casey was pretty sure things had started about something home related, but now he was catching snippets about gargoyles and fae folk and something called a boggart.

“Man, you’d never know they were twins,” Casey commented to their sibling, Leo, sitting directly across from him and April.

“I have to agree with Casey on that one,” April added, looking up from the thick book she’d produced from thin air earlier. “I thought Raph was just a bit of a brutish friend Donnie had, until they told me.”

Casey was fairly certain that was a school library book. They were all going home for the summer. He wasn’t sure if this was another case of the Ravenclaws of their group taking liberties with school supplies, or if she’d actually asked someone if she could borrow it. He wouldn’t have bet on the latter.

“Brutish is a little mean,” Leo said with a grimacing smile.

“Well, he did come out of nowhere and tackle Donnie without even a hello, so what was I supposed to think of him?”

“Okay, fair enough.”

“But seriously,” Casey said, glancing at the totally absorbed pair of brothers, ignoring them all completely, “they’re like, night and day. You sure _you’re_ not Don’s twin? You’re closer in height.”

“Only ‘cause I’m older,” Leo said ruefully. “But really, they are twins, I swear. Watch this.”

He then held his finger to his lips, motioning Casey and April to be quiet. Leo reached into the depths of his cloak; pulling out a tiny little wrapped treat with enough care you’d have thought it was glass. Casey remembered vaguely Leo getting his share of the offered train snacks from up the car they were in, gone to do so without anyone with him, and not returning with any treats at all when he came back.

As Leo delicately curled around the chocolate treat and its wrapper, Donnie and Raph started half-shouting about something to each other. For a guy who’d been possessed not even a couple weeks ago- proven by the pale mark standing out on his forehead- Donnie sure had a lot of energy for the argument.

Leo started to open the wrapper, which made the tiniest crinkle of plastic possible.

Donnie and Raph’s mouths snapped shut, and they both simultaneously whipped their heads towards Leo with wide eyes.

“It’s their favori-”

 _“Can I have some?”_ Donnie and Raph said over Leo’s wry words, pressed into his space and intent on the little wrapped candy. Leo sighed, squished up against the cabin wall by his younger brothers.

“Yes,” he said in a tired voice. “But it was supposed to be for-”

“ _Love you, thanks,”_ Raph and Donnie said, snatching the candy and starting a whole new fight over who was going to split the pieces

“-Mikey. Why do I even bother with you two.”

Casey cackled, and April snorted into her palm.

“Okay,” Casey said, “I can see the resemblance now.”

Leo gave a shrug and fond grin, and they resumed having a conversation between the three of themselves, while the twins continued bickering in their own little world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mikey finds out that they ate a chocolate that was meant for him, and he bugs them about it for a whole week until they throw a bunch of corner store candies at him to make him shut up. all according to mikey's plan.


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> set waaaaaaaaaaaaay down the line for these kids, when they're not kids anymore and adults instead. they do taxes and everything lmao.
> 
> some raph stuff specifically for my sick friend. @ rhi i hope you feel better soon. <333

Crouching carefully, taking a sniff of the air around him, Raph crept closer to the edge of the foliage. He caught the scents of ordinary animals having passed by earlier- deer mostly, and maybe a grouse- and confirmed again that the creatures he was looking for were still where he thought they’d be.

He parted the branches gently, minding that he didn’t move too quickly. After hiking nearly two hours up the side of the mountain from his camp, Raph smiled at the reward for his efforts.

Like he’d been hoping to, for nearly a week now, he had now managed to catch his subject of study in the act of something incredibly rare.

A flight of pygmy dragons were rolling around on the ground of the forest; four fledglings, three adult females. A grandmother and her two daughters, raising the sets of twins all together. Raph had only been able to catch snippets of them in flight or up in the trees until today, biding his time and keeping an eye on the weather for optimal conditions.

Pygmy dragons, specifically these ones, rarely alighted on the ground. The owl butterfly pygmy dragon, imaginatively named for how their wings resembled the insect’s. Their small size made them easy targets for any cunning predator able to outsmart and outmaneuver the tiny fire breathers, but also allowed them to remain tree bound for majority of their lives.

Except for the times of the year when their favorite plants bloomed huge flowers heavy with nectar. The wings weren’t the only resemblance the dragons bore to an owl butterfly; the length of the pygmy’s tongue was impressive to say the least, and the best tool for lapping its favorite seasonal treat.

Raph laid down on his stomach, stretching out his arms and positioning the camera he’d brought with him. The shutter of it clicked rapidly, capturing the scene so he could study the pictures later. Both in magical format and digital format, thanks to Donnie discovering computerized _everything_ and making it his divine goal in life to make as many things electronic/magic friendly as possible. Of course, that was on top of further discovering the latent wild magic still remaining in the earth, figuring out how to relearn the forgotten teachings of beings from outside their realms of knowledge and comprehension, revitalizing types of magic lost to time and societal progression and colonial influence… and etcetera.

Raph and his twin were both on the far end of their twenties now, after spending literally their whole lives together, and he _still_ hadn’t figured out when his brother slept during all that. Especially given Donnie had about ten other ‘hobbies’, as he called them, that would have been worth a master’s degree at least. If Donnie could be bothered to actually submit himself to higher education (for the third time) and not piss of every professor and examiner in the room before he finished the courses.

(Donnie had a lot of opinions about magical sciences and related subjects. A _lot_ of opinions _._ And very few of them popular with stuffy high collar over-a-hundred-years-old-at-least wizards.)

Raph would mock his brother for being that much of a dramatic nerd, but here he was, painstakingly documenting endangered magical creatures and studying their behaviors down to the slightest eye twitch. Raph, fortunately and unfortunately, had no leg to stand on anymore.

For a werewolf, much as wizarding society had improved the past decade and some about its stigmatism, the kind of job where he was alone for weeks at a time and far from civilization suited him well. Outside of the cities of humans, Raph could open up his senses and just _be_ ; no fear of judgement, no splitting headaches when a smell or noise got overpowering. He missed his family when the expeditions went close to a month long, but it was just easier to do what society wanted of werewolves and make himself scarce.

Plus, he loved his job. Loved scouring woods and mountains and coastlines for overlooked and somewhat forgotten beings and creatures. And tracking down small populations of extraordinarily rare species was a lot easier when your nose and ears could pick up a hundred things a normal human’s couldn’t.

Like the sound of mostly silent pawsteps rustling the leaves on the ground, headed right for Raph’s location. Raph obligingly moved over a fraction so a furry body could lie down next to him; staring out through the leaves of the bushes they were in with deep brown eyes.

“Find Spike?” Raph asked, and the large black dog huffed. A beat later, and a tiny griffin fluttered down from above to land on the dog’s head. Said dog looked a little annoyed, but didn’t snap at Spike.

Raph reached over to one of his oldest pets, patting Spike’s soft little head with two of his fingertips. The scruffy mutt that had gone and tracked down the little bird-cat closed his eyes, and sighed loudly; probably tired out from searching.

“Thanks for bringing him back, Casey,” Raph said quietly, relieved Spike had been persuaded to come back from his gallivanting in the trees. They’d lost him about a half hour ago, and Raph couldn’t waste the good afternoon weather, for fear the clouds would come back and rain out the flight again.

Casey growled softly, tail thumping once to show his annoyance, but grudgingly seemed to say _you’re welcome._

Except the growl caught the attention of the pygmy dragons, and as they were prone to do- startled them up into the trees. In case whatever had just growled was big and smart enough to eat them. Plenty magical predators would give it a shot, up here on this mountain.

Raph almost wanted to get mad, but he instead just sighed in frustration. Casey gave an apologetic whine.

“Don’t worry about it, they’ll be back later,” Raph said, figuring it would be nice to have a break and eat something. “You want a snack?”

An agreeable thump of tail, and then the dog version of Raph’s best friend stood and yawned; forcing an indignant Spike into the air as he stretched out his legs, shaking himself as a ripple went over his whole form. A moment later and Casey stood up on two legs, stretching his arms over his head and sighing.

“I’ve been in that office _way_ too long, I swear. Every time I switch back and forth I find a new cramp,” he complained, sitting back down on the ground with Raph. Raph handed his friend a wrapped sandwich from his belt’s miniature bag, which contained most of their campsite and all of their food thanks to the Extension charm he’d put on it.

“Shoulda taken the yoga class Leo offered you,” Raph said, taking out his own sandwich and unwrapping it.

“I would literally never hear the end of the downwards dog puns from him or Mikey, so no thanks.”

“From my brother Leo? The extremely serious Quidditch player who runs our dad’s dojo part time in the off season with the same intense concentration he plays a world cup game? Yeah no he would absolutely never let you hear the end of it.”

“’s what I _said,”_ Casey exclaimed around a bite of sandwich. Spike chose then to land on his head again and begin attempting to grab a bite of food. Casey growled at the attempts, saying, “ _No, no dammnit this is_ people _food. Go eat a bug or something.”_

Raph chose to rescue his friend from his pet around the point Spike started biting Casey’s ear. He whistled and clicked his tongue, and held out his hand for Spike to alight on his palm; tiny lion’s tail swishing merrily as Spike chirped back.

“Freaking wizard snow white,” Casey muttered, rubbing his ear.

“Does that make you Dopey or something?” Raph teased.

“Man, fuck you. I’m at least Sleepy.”

“Maybe, since you’re a pain in the ass to wake up in the morning- but weren’t you the one who called yourself ‘dope as shit’ all those years?”

“Fuck. You. I was a kid an’ thought it was cool. And gimme another sandwich already, stingy asshole.”

Raph handed over another sandwich. They ate together in companionably silence for a bit, listening to the trilling calls of the pygmy flight above them in the trees. Raph was going to miss this place and all its natural beauty when he had to leave; which was… in another week and a half.

The full moon was, after all, a monthly event. And even if Raph had wolfsbane potion whenever he needed, it didn’t change the fact that he’d need to be in a locked cell when that night rolled around.

At least the one in Donnie and April’s psychotic mad scientist house/library/black magics lab had a comfy enough cage for him. Bed, toys, company. A better set up than most werewolves got, especially since his family viewed him as less a horrifying monster too dangerous to be around under the full moon, and more so a particularly rowdy canine that got ridiculously sad if he spent it alone.

It was embarrassing, waking up after running in circles and howling about _everything_ and _anything_ all night and being stupidly needy of attention, and having one or more animagus hanging out in his cell with smug little animal grins aimed his way.

Speaking of.

“How many more days you got, by the way?” Raph asked. “I wanna know specifically just how long my cousin’s let you slip the leash.”

“’nother week,” Casey replied, balling up his sandwich wrappers and handing them to Raph to tuck away. “Karai was really nice about it, since she has a bunch of newbies to break in anyway.”

“Whoever put that woman in charge of training Auror recruits was nuts.”

“A little, yeah, but she definitely weeds out the ones who’re just in it for the glory, not the job.”

“And that’s not what you’re in it for?”

“I’m multitasking. Protection of the innocent and enjoying a free beer now and again. Sounds balanced in my opinion.” Casey laid back down on the ground, this time staying in human form as he did. “By the way, when are _you_ heading home again? It’s pretty close, now.”

Raph shrugged, and laid down on his back beside Casey; putting the camera on his chest and staring up at the canopy.

“Probably another few days, maybe a week,” Raph replied belatedly. He wasn’t looking forwards to having to drudge through a whole week of feeling sickly and unnervingly restless at times, but what could you do? Donnie’s quest to cure lycanthropy hadn’t been completed yet (it had turned up interesting facts about werewolves, yes, but not figured out how to cure the viral contagion).

“Cool. I’ll bring chips and dip for the sleepover.”

“I… still don’t know if a wolf is supposed to eat those things.”

“I eat them.”

“You’re an animagus, it’s different.”

“By like, consent of transformation maybe. Not much else.”

“I know that ninety-nine percent of wizards would disagree strongly with that statement.”

“Then they’re closed minded assholes. I don’t even study you guys for a living and I know it’s not that different. Same kind of basics in how your body’s genetic makeup gets magiced to hell and back, even if the transformation part is executed dissimilarly. And non-consensually on your part.”

“You spend too much time around my brother and April, Case. You’re starting to sound like them.”

“Ain’t wrong, bruv. I’ll bet Don’s still got the diagram he made and everything.”

“Stick with American slang; you sound weird when you say bruv.”

“Your _face_ sounds weird.”

Raph snorted and elbowed his friend for the terrible comeback. Casey elbowed back and they bickered a few minutes longer; until Raph shushed Casey and started doing his job again.

Being a field researcher really was great, since instead of sitting in a dusty lab somewhere with his butt getting sore, Raph got to be the one taking pictures of pygmy dragons midflight on a sunshiny late spring afternoon; on vacation with his best friend no less.

The camera shutter clicked a dozen times as Raph followed the progression of the dragons- catching what would probably be stunning images of the underside of their wings. The brilliant coloring shone in the afternoon, and for the moment, banished the thoughts of what waited for him in the weeks to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'll write a full moon scene some time. yall can guess in the meantime what kind of animagus everyone else is.


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've been meaning to write this one for a while! for ages, the brothers are twelve to fourteen in this.

Leo sometimes wondered if anyone’s summers were actually relaxing vacations. His sure never were.

Exampled by, as he and Mikey were poking at food in the kitchen for a late lunch, something exploding upstairs. Leo and Mikey exchanged frazzled looks, Mikey’s hair puffed up in startled agitation and Leo’s arm hair standing on end.

“Donnie?” Mikey suggested.

“Donnie,” Leo agreed.

It almost always was Donnie’s fault, whenever something exploded. Unless Casey or April were over, and Raph maybe had been coerced by Mikey into testing out new poppers, or Karai had slept over and was trying out yet another advanced spell- okay, so maybe it wasn’t always Donnie’s fault. But most of the time it did turn out that way.

There was smoke streaming from under Donnie’s door, so that confirmed their suspicions as truth. Leo took lead, feeling Mikey clutch at the back of his shirt as they approached the door cautiously, and he turned the knob slowly.

Smoke billowed into their faces, causing them to cough as their eyes burned. Following the smoke out was their brother’s irritated cries.

“ _FUCK! Fucking- for Merlin’s sake, why won’t you fucking WORK ALREADY?”_

“Hey, Dee?” Mikey asked, hacking into his fist still. “You- good? Do we gotta put out any fires?”

A glass beaker flew across the room and shattered against the wall. Leo and Mikey both shrieked and ducked away.

_“Go away! I’m busy and I don’t want interruptions!”_

“I’m gettin’ Raph,” Mikey hissed, scrambling away and abandoning Leo to deal with their brother’s temper. Leo started to call after his youngest brother, but Mikey was down the steps and out the front door before he got the first words out.

Leo glanced back at the still smoking doorway of Donnie’s room, and sighed deeply. Then he coughed again, inhaling smog.

Leo opened all the windows of the other rooms- except Raph’s because his pets might escape- and then headed into Donnie’s again. The smoke was slightly more bearable, and Leo could now see clearly the long running tubes and wires strung up all over the place. Crackles of light followed the length of the wires, and mysterious liquids bubbled through the tubes. Leo took care to not touch _any_ of them, lest something else explode on him.

Donnie’s small twin size bed was shoved against the wall, flipped on its side to give maximum space to the floor. The wooden boards of the room had scorched markings in an intricate, dizzying spell circle, and Donnie crouched in the center of it. Fussing with a sparking, smoking contraption Leo couldn’t discern the purpose of even if someone asked him to.

“Hey, uh, Donnie?” Leo said edging close as he dared, not trusting the spell circle to not explode if he touched it, too.

Donnie’s head whipped towards him, face blackened by soot and thick hair a writhing mass of excess magic. “ _What?”_ he snapped, black goggles glinting intimidatingly.

Or, they would be, were Leo not completely used to his brothers being in all sorts of mildly terrifying disarray. Raph still brought home critters, crawling all over his head and shoulders, which would try eating Leo’s fingers, and Mikey somehow always made friends with these _things_ that better belonged under the bed. At least Donnie’s messes were always homemade; the other two enjoyed tracking messes _into_ the home, instead.

“Your hair is smoking,” Leo said, pointing at his own temple to indicate the flame. Donnie cursed again- language their father would scold him for- and hurriedly patted out the singed coils. “What’re you trying to even do with that thing?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Donnie spat, reaching into his tool belt and retrieving a wicked looking prong. He opened the panel of the confusing machine he’d built, ignoring that the whirling bits of it shuddered and sped up as he worked at its inside.

“Try me,” Leo said, not bothering to get offended at his brother’s tone. Donnie was slow to truly anger, and right now all that emotion was directed at his invention- or, more accurately, at himself. This wasn’t about anyone else but Donnie.

“No- you _literally_ wouldn’t understand!” Donnie exclaimed. His contraption made a hissing pop and Donnie yanked himself away from it as a whirling bit detached and flew off. It caught Donnie’s cheek as it went by, and Leo finally had to steel himself and step onto the spell circle.

“Here- here, c’mon, let’s get away from this thing for a moment, alright?” Leo hauled Donnie up and away from the device. Nothing else exploded, and they escaped with only the small cut to Donnie’s cheek as injury.

Leo made Donnie stand by the wall, while he skirted the spell circle again and opened the window. A gust of fresh air swept in, clearing more of the smoke. The glowing wires around them lost their glow, and the liquid in the tubes slowed to a stop. Donnie’s magical invention stopped whirling and popping; going quiet as it sat smoking still.

Donnie was shoving up his goggles and rubbing his eyes as Leo came over; a pinched look of frustration on his face. His hair was still sparking with extra magic, but it seemed to be settling bit by bit. Leo’s own excess magic, which had been electrically charging his bones and nerves as he tried to keep calm in the situation, was settling down as well.

Swiping at his cut cheek, Donnie regarded the smears of blood with disgust. He then sighed and slumped against the wall, sliding down. Leo followed example, tucking his knees to his chest.

“So… why wouldn’t I understand, exactly?” Leo asked, after a beat of silence.

“Because it’s- it’s, you know, from back then,” Donnie said, gesturing sharply at his pale scar. It’d faded the past two years, but remained clearly visible on the dark skin of his forehead. “Even _I_ only understand half of it. If I tried to explain… you wouldn’t even get the base concept.”

“Oh,” Leo said quietly, feeling sympathy for his brother’s situation. This wasn’t something even Donnie’s twin could help with, not really. Or April, as canny as she was with magical theory. None of them could really understand what Donnie went through, his possession and overwhelming influx of magical ability- and the abrupt loss of that, at the end of things.

It made Leo uncomfortable and upset, knowing that however much he wanted to, this wouldn’t ever be something he could properly fix. He could support Donnie, but what the Being inside his head had left… that was all in a place none of them could ever reach, and where a part of Donnie might always be alone in.

Leo looked for something to comfort his brother with anyway, thinking hard. “You… could take a break from this?” he suggested tentatively. “Try something small, just for summer vacation. Not every project has big an’ grand, you know?”

“You don’t _get it,”_ Donnie said miserably. His coils finally returned to gravity, falling around his face messily. He looked awful, and completely disheartened.

“I can’t just… _do_ small stuff. It’s not the same. I- I _know_ what’s possible, and I _knew_ how to do it, and now I- I-” Donnie cut off, scrubbing his eyes roughly and growling.

“…And now you don’t,” Leo finished gently.

“And now I don’t,” Donnie repeated sadly.

Leo reached over and tugged his brother into a hug. Donnie came willingly into it, tight with tension and pent up feelings. It took a long few moments for that tension to ease, even just a little.

Leo patted his brother’s back, mulling over his own thoughts. Maybe Donnie would always feel like this. Leo hoped not, but he knew his brother. He knew that to Donnie, knowledge was the most important thing in the world. Leo knew that for his younger brother, it must have been like losing a part of himself to have all that knowledge taken away.

At some point, though, he hoped the mark on his brother’s forehead would fade, and so would the manic desperation Donnie sometimes got with his projects. Trying, over and over, to replicate the feeling of his time with the Being in his head.

That wouldn’t be today, but in the future… hopefully it would be someday.

“…Dad’s gonna be super mad about your floor. And ceiling.”

“I know. I’ll- can you help me clean it up, later? Please?”

“Sure, Don.”

Mikey returned with Raph not long after that, and Leo passed Donnie over to his twin. Mikey whined purely for show when he was enlisted to help start cleanup, but went and got the spellbook from the kitchen with all the cleaning spells. In the meantime, Leo found a house broom in the closet, and set about sweeping all the metal bits on the floor into a pile.

Donnie wiped his eyes after a few more minutes talking with Raph, wrestled his hair back into its usual ponytail, and took the spellbook from Mikey. Between the four of them, the room was back to its baseline messiness within a few hours.

The placed Donnie’s bed on top of the bulk of the spell circle burned into the floor, and tossed dirty laundry on the rest of it. With any luck, it would be years before their father noticed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trauma! it gives you habits and behaviors that last a long way into the future. poor donnie, he'll figure out a balance for his goals and his current skills at some point.

**Author's Note:**

> I have so many other things to do, but instead I did this.
> 
> Yeeeeeeeeeeee- priorities!!!
> 
> I have lots but tend to none of them.


End file.
